Contacting an artist - how far is too far?

[sciuraamethysta.livejournal.com]

Hello, everyone! I just have a quick question about contacting an artist over a commission I made roughly a year and a half ago. Details are under the cut.

I commissioned one of my favorite artists (I'll leave her unnamed for the time being) in September of 2010, when she had just opened commissions and seemed to be very active. I was excited to see what she'd come up with, and had no problem paying her $40 up front. In  the months that followed, her activity slowed and eventually stopped, but I trusted my commission would be worked on.

In January of 2011, I checked in again to see how the commission was coming, and she apologized and said she had had a rough semester, and would be working on it. I could understand, and again, I really did love this artist, so I was willing to wait.

I tried to contact her yet again multiple times by email in August and then September of 2011, after some concerning activity; she had shut down her Livejournal account, and seemed to have also shut down her Tumblr. Unfortunately, this time I received no response, despite numerous emails.

What triggers this question is that she finally shut down her Deviantart recently, which is where I originally commissioned her. This leaves me with no mode of contact,  save for the two email addresses where she never responded back in September.

So here is my question. We exchanged names during the whole Paypal process, so she's aware that I have hers and I know she has mine. She's been active on Facebook as recently as early in December. Would it be stepping across the line to contact her via a Facebook message and ask again about my commission, or is it still within the bounds of courtesy? (I know for certain it's her Facebook account as well, as it links to both the dead LJ and the dead Deviantart accounts.)

Thanks in advance for your help; I'm truly unsure what to do in this situation.

EDIT: All right, I just shot her off a message asking for a new contact email. We'll see how this goes. Thank you all so much for the quick response and awesome advice! I'll post a lost contact later tonight and will consider posting a beware once this whole thing plays out.

SECOND EDIT: Still no result in terms of my message, but thanks to a very helpful tip about Tumblr, I was able to discover that she has indeed changed URLs but is still very active. And commissioning. Yeah, you may well see a beware post here soon.

Comments

[taasla.livejournal.com]

The thing is there very well may be other people out there that were left in the dust. Many things can happen in life, but I find it very poor on the artist's part to just disappear on you. If they had no intention to continue art or whatnot, they could have easily refunded you.

Edit: I should also note that you can simply consider your "outing" of them as a lost contact. If you legitimately do not want to hit them with something like a full on beware, then maybe there might be someone out there who knows if the artist has an email address that they do check.

[sciuraamethysta.livejournal.com]

That's a very fair point. I would have been willing to accept excuses, but just vanishing is in poor taste. I think I'll draw up a beware after I see how this unfolds. Thank you for your advice!!

additional edit: That seems like an even more awesome idea. I know she went by a few aliases after those I lost contact with, and honestly I do just miss her art and would love to see if she's active anywhere anymore. I'll get that up here sometime later this evening.