I've always loved snail mail.

There's something very special about seeing something in your mailbox that was clearly handled with care. Even when it's expected, it always feels like a surprise. I love the feeling of curling up in a chair to unwrap the treasures inside — an act of love packaged in physical form.

Since the little drawings I shared in last month's letter, the idea of starting a mail club hasn't left me alone. So, I've started Stay Soft Club!

Stay Soft Club

A little art, a little love, delivered to your mailbox.

For $14 a month, you'll receive two art postcards, a letter or poem from me, and an occasional treat tucked inside.

I'm calling it the Stay Soft Club because I think the world is getting harder to live in. We're often asked to move faster, toughen up, and block things out. But I think there's something important about choosing softness — about remaining open, being tender, and celebrating our soft hearts.

For me, mail has always been about connection, which is why you'll receive two postcards each month: one to keep and one to send to someone else. Or keep both. I won't tell. 😌

The details

What's included

• Two 4x6 art postcards featuring my original artwork
• A letter or poem from me
• Occasional little treats and surprises
• Mailed monthly

Choose your subscription

• Monthly — $14
• Three months — $41
• One year — $160
• Subscribe by the 20th to be included in the following month's mail, mailed out on the 1st of each month.

Gift subscriptions are also available as nonrecurring purchases, so you can send someone a little love without signing them up for an ongoing subscription.

Subscriptions are currently open to the US and Canada. You can start and stop your subscription at any time via the same link.

Join the Stay Soft Club

Around the studio

In my last newsletter, I wrote about making small drawings — little things that pop into my head and find their way onto paper.

I've continued honoring those whims this month and ended up with these 2 characters who have had enough.
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Maybe they'll find their way into a mailbox :)

My practice has seemingly started to take two different paths.

One is playful and spontaneous: the little ideas that pop into my head, the doodles I make just because I feel like it, where the image is the destination.

The other is slower and more intuitive. These ideas tend to come from my dreams, meditations, and the larger questions I'm turning over in my mind. They take longer to brew, and sometimes I have to sit with them for a while before they start to take shape.

One of these ideas has been a deer(?) that keeps appearing in my imagination. I've started exploring what it might look like, and I'm sharing a little glimpse of those early studies here.

I like having room for both-- for the things that come easily and the things that ask me to be patient

Outside the Studio

I've also been getting out of the studio and painting with other artists. Besides my usual figure drawing loop, this month I joined a beach paint-out with the Miami Plein Air Society. Between the wind and the sun, it was a lot more exhausting than I expected, but it was a nice reminder of the joys of painting from life and of stretching into subjects I don't usually paint.
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See these in my instagram stories as they happen :)

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As always, thank you for following along and making space for the things I make. I'm excited to send a little more art out into the world, and hopefully into your mailboxes, too.

Stay soft,

— Austin 💙

​@austinlan.art​

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