Let's say that over a year ago, you commissioned an artist for an artwork piece. Not just a simple doodle, but a fully colored-and-shaded-with-background, all-the-bells-and-whistles, top-dollar kind of piece. Both of you agreed on the terms, and you paid for the commission in advance, and in full. The artist suggested that delivery would likely take a few weeks, up to a month at the most.

More than a year later, you haven't even seen a sketch or other work-in-progress. When you politely ask the artist for an update on the situation, they respond with silence. They haven't completely disappeared from the internet — you still see them tweeting or posting online somewhere every now and then. Their gallery page still screams "COMMISSIONS OPEN" in a big font, unchanged from over a year ago, even though they haven't posted a single commission piece since that time.

You've asked for an update once, twice, thrice, yet were ignored every time. They haven't addressed the issue in any way. What else do you do? What can you do?

You could call them out on their deadbeat behavior, publically. You don't have a huge following, so your message probably won't have a large reach, but at least your bad experience will be on public record. Maybe that will do something. You could tweet, blog, write a journal, whatever-your-platform-offers about it. You could even go to artistsbeware.info, which despite its name isn't just a platform for reporting troublesome clients, but irresponsible artists as well.

But is calling the artist out the correct thing to do? Surely, you're owed for the money you paid, so you'd be in the moral right to do so.

I find myself in that situation. Still, the thought of "going public" with the issue doesn't sit right with me. This isn't like leaving a 1-star review on Amazon because your mass-produced, made-in-China fidget spinner arrived with a different color than the image on the product page showed. This is a real human person, someone who is likely only drawing furry art as a hobby, whose reputation you would be negatively affecting — even if you are justified in doing so. Maybe they're struggling, emotionally, financially, or in some other way? Is it worth hurting someone just to "be right" online?*

I don't know. What I do know is that I'm probably overthinking it. And also, that it's taught me to be more careful with who I give my money to.



* (Reading this over again made me realize I'm starting to sound like that "My Bike Got Stolen Recently" (aka "bike cuck") meme comic, wow.)