Advice on raffle prizes?

[summercucumber.livejournal.com]

Hey everyone! Sorry to bug y'all with silly questions, but my partner and I seem to be finding ourselves in a bit of a pickle and were hoping that some of you lovely people could offer us a bit of guidance.

Last June we entered a rather large raffle hosted by an artist we both admired. The artist in question was using it as a way to boost their watcher status, one of those 'get one entry for watching and commenting with your ref and +1 for every new watcher you refer' sort of deals. Being fans we sent friends their way to help them reach their goal and out of the hundreds of entries we were both fortunate enough to win the 1st and 3rd prizes. At first, we patiently waited for a few months, figuring that paid commissions would take priority (and that's totally understandable), but as time passed we noticed that the artist had eventually moved away from commissions and has since made several gifts and personal art-trades, seeming to have forgotten about us. Under normal circumstances it wouldn't be a big deal to just send the artist a polite note inquiring about the prizes, but over the past few months they've been displaying extremely hostile and passive-aggressive behavior towards their watchers. The littlest thing sets them off and when they get upset it riles up some of their more aggressive supporters, making my partner and I nervous about bringing the subject up.

Does anyone have any advice on how to go about this without angering the artist? Or are we better off just forgetting about the entire event and moving on?

Thank you very much for your time!