KC dad launched a trendy art subscription after his art went viral. It’s a hit
Theo Davis moved to Kansas City 10 years ago, and instantly felt at home.
The 40-year-old Washington D.C. native had always had an affinity for art, but it wasn’t until a few years later that he began dabbling in selling his work, letting his love for Kansas City inspire his artwork.
This year, sales of the father of three’s watercolor prints of Kansas City have gone through the roof, and with that, a new business venture has emerged.
“I love KC and I just wanted to share my art with as many people as possible, and I know there’s a segment of people who just won’t come into the stores, and even $30 is too much, and I’m like how can I get more art into those people’s hands,” he said.
Davis got the idea of launching an affordable snail mail art club after he watched artists in other cities do the same on TikTok and thrive.
In November, he mailed out the first edition. He expected to have around 10 subscribers, but ended up with 200. The next month he got 360.
“I was just so overwhelmed, I was like, ‘I don’t have enough supplies or enough materials, I need to order more stuff,’ and it’s just been taking off since then,” Davis said.
Affordable art, and the start of a new business
Davis, who works a full-time corporate job, opened his first art display booth at The Painted Tree on Barry Road this year after selling 200 prints at an artist showcase. His prints are intentionally affordable, starting at $18 for just the print and $25 for the print with a frame.
Since then, he’s expanded his booths to Overland Park, Blue Springs and Midtown Kansas City. He’s also been commissioned to paint the front of the Folly Theater, and was approached by Hallmark to sell his pieces. As his sales increased, Davis turned his attention to a new endeavor — starting the snail mail art subscription service.
“Too many of us just settle for the mundane or whatever, versus venturing into the city and just enjoying this beautiful mid-size city that we have,” Davis said.
The first print in November was of the Liberty Memorial Tower. It focused on the sentinels at the top, a beautiful part of the tower that Davis said most people don’t notice. An assortment of trees with different fall leaf colors frame the bottom.
“It’s just in my storybook style,” he said. “It’s got wavy lines and the colors aren’t perfect, but I think people connect with it because of its imperfections.”
Each mailed piece of Davis’ art comes with a letter which includes historical background of the subject and artist inspiration and a sticker version of one of his other artworks. This month, Davis painted the Christmas tree inside the Union Station and included a watercolor sticker of the Shuttlecock at the Nelson Atkins Museum of Art.
“I just want to give some people hope, and so even the December print, I was talking about hope in the midst of how Union Station had a high and then a low during the 70s, but then it reopened, and it’s this amazing epicenter of our cultural moment in Kansas City,” Davis said. “I just wanna inspire and encourage people through the different landmarks that we call home.”
The artistic process behind the snail mail art club
Davis sometimes thinks ahead about what he would like to paint that month, but prefers to paint in the moment.
“I literally just go, I start driving around downtown, and I’m exploring different spots and suddenly something will pop out to me, and I’ll be like, ‘oh, right here, this is the spot,” he said.
Painting the original takes normally two to three hours onsite. Other times he may do a sketch and few layers of paint before finishing at home with a photo. Davis’ goal is to mail out subscriptions on the first of the month, so he gives himself two to three weeks to do the whole process of painting and then cutting and packing the envelopes.
One lucky subscriber each month gets Davis’ original artwork instead of the print. It comes with a certificate of authenticity and is a unique touch that helps bring joy and give others original work that they may otherwise not be able to afford.
“It’s my favorite thing, if this could be my full-time job, I would love that,” he said. “I love getting to put words on the page and hopefully just inspire people because there’s so much sadness and darkness in the world.”
Davis’ theme for the 2026 mail club is Kansas City icons. Up first in January is the City Market sign, an important landmark to him because a print he previously made of the sign has been his most successful. The sign is now something he holds near and dear to his heart.
“I’m just gonna be going around Kansas City and picking 12 iconic locations, so City Market is gonna be the first, “ he said. “For February I’m probably gonna go over to 18th and Vine for Black History Month.”
Anyone interested in joining Davis’ art mail club will get the City Market print (and a chance at getting the original) as long as they subscribe before midnight on Dec. 31. The subscription is $8 a month, and a portion of the funds he collects goes to a different humanitarian cause each month.
“My favorite part has just been when people message me, either they’ll email me or they’ll message me on Instagram or TikTok and they’ll just show me pictures of the art that they have and that they’ve hung up,” he said.
Everyone who signs up get the following months’ print. Once the print is out, it’s gone, they are not available outside the mail club.
“I love the fact that my artwork is not perfect, in a world where AI art is starting to rule,” he said. “I just love the human touches of this artwork, how the lines are wiggly and the paint is outside of the lines, and I think more of us just need to live life that way. I think we need to not be concerned about getting everything perfect.”
Davis still does custom work, but is slowing down while he focuses more on making more watercolor designs and the mail club.
“My hope is that when people see whether it’s my oil painting that kind of have a finger painting style to it, or my watercolors, is that it just invokes some childhood memories as you’re looking at some of these recognizable place,” he said.
More information about Davis’ artwork, including the mail club, can be found on his social media pages like TikTok or his website.
Information on how to join the art mail club can be found here.
This story was originally published December 22, 2025 at 6:00 AM.
