Commission Terms

Definitions

• Accord means a formal point of review at which the Patron may approve the work as presented, request a pause, or offer one round of feedback. Every commission includes two Accords: the first at Reflect, the second at Envision.
• Atelier means Gilded Whisker, being Fraxinus Enterprises Inc. carrying on business under that name.
• Commission means the bespoke artistic engagement undertaken by the Atelier for the Patron under these terms.
• Commission Brief means the patron-facing brief for the path chosen — presently the House Brief or the Directed Brief — describing the spirit, arc, and artefacts of that commission.
• Envision means the stage at which the Tableau is presented and the visual direction of the Work is confirmed — the second Accord.
• House Collection means the archive, collection, and body of work maintained by the Atelier, including its records of provenance, patronage, commentary, and continuity.
• Keeper means the person who shares the bond with the Kindred — who may, but need not, be the Patron.
• Kindred means the animal companion who is the subject of the Work.
• Patron means the person, persons, or entity entering into the commission.
• Reflect means the stage at which the commission’s written artefacts are presented — the first Accord.
• Reveal means the stage at which the finished Work is presented and invoiced.
• Work means the portrait or other final artistic output that is the deliverable of the Commission.

These Commission Terms are entered into with Fraxinus Enterprises Inc., carrying on business as Gilded Whisker; references to Gilded Whisker or the Atelier are references to that corporation.

Acceptance

Acceptance is recorded when the commission is opened, and the version of these terms accepted at that moment governs that commission from beginning to end. A copy of the accepted version is provided to the Patron and remains available to them. Revisions published later apply to later commissions — never retroactively to yours.

The Commission

Each commission is a bespoke artistic engagement, shaped through consultation, interpretation, and creation.

Gilded Whisker holds full discretion over artistic method, sequencing, tools, internal process, and creative judgment throughout the commission — including working methods, studies, drafts, analytical and compositional materials, and the systems used to create, shape, and deliver the Work. The commission is not a work-for-hire arrangement: no ownership in the Work, the process, or any underlying intellectual property transfers to the Patron.

Scope

A commission produces one Work: the finished portrait, in the format and panel count commissioned, delivered as a high-resolution digital master. The standard format is 8 × 12 inches at 300 DPI, in portrait orientation. A different format may be requested at the outset of the commission and revised up to the second Accord, at Envision.

The path to the Work unfolds as the Commission Brief describes — artefacts presented in language and image as the work takes shape. These presentations are the Atelier’s process and the commission’s experience: they are offered for the Patron’s reflection and enjoyment within the commission’s pages, they remain part of the Atelier’s process, and they are not separate deliverables. What the commission guarantees is the Work.

Anything beyond the Work — printed pieces, companion materials, additional artefacts — is included only where expressly agreed in writing, though the Atelier may always choose to give more than it promised.

Patron Materials

The Patron provides the reference images, information, and stories the commission needs. By providing them, the Patron confirms they have the right to share them and to authorize their use, and that their use for the commission will not infringe anyone else’s rights. The Patron accepts responsibility for any claim that arises from materials they provide.

Gilded Whisker may rely on the accuracy and sufficiency of what is provided, and is not responsible for limitations arising from incomplete, inaccurate, or poor-quality source material.

Process

The commission proceeds through the stages described in the Commission Brief. Formal feedback is invited at the two Accords:

• the first at Reflect, when the commission’s written artefacts are presented;
• the second at Envision, when the Tableau is presented and the visual direction is confirmed.

At each Accord, the Patron may approve the work as presented, request a pause, or offer one round of feedback intended to clarify, refine, or confirm the work’s direction. Feedback is received in good faith and helps shape the work — but artistic interpretation remains the responsibility of Gilded Whisker, and the Atelier may accept, decline, or limit any requested change in its sole discretion.

After the second Accord, the work proceeds into final creation and toward Reveal. Any further revision or accommodation beyond the two Accords, if offered at all, is a courtesy in the Atelier’s discretion — not a right under these terms.

Communications

The Atelier communicates with the Patron about the commission — confirmations, scheduling, the two Accords, and the Reveal and its invoice — through the contact methods the Patron provides and selects. These are service communications: they are part of conducting the commission, not marketing, and the commission relies on them. The Patron may update their contact methods at any time, and may decline any single channel — including text messaging — without affecting the commission itself. The handling of contact information, and the terms that apply to text messaging, are set out in the Privacy Policy and the Website Terms.

Timing

The commission proceeds according to the pace, sequencing, and current commitments of the Atelier. Timelines are estimates, not guarantees, and the Atelier may adjust pacing where reasonably necessary, provided the nature of the engagement is preserved.

If the Patron does not respond at an Accord within 14 days, the commission may be paused. If the Patron remains inactive for 30 days after the last communication, the commission may be treated as closed. A paused or closed commission resumes, if at all, at the Atelier’s discretion, and not necessarily on the original schedule.

Fee and Payment

The fee for a commission is the fee presented at commissioning, before the Patron proceeds in accord. Fees are exclusive of applicable taxes unless stated otherwise.

Unless otherwise agreed in writing, payment is due upon invoice at Reveal. Reveal may present the finished Work in preview form; the final high-resolution master is released upon payment in full.

If payment is not received within 14 days of invoice, the commission may be treated as closed. In that event, all rights in the Work remain exclusively with Gilded Whisker, no licence comes into effect, and the Atelier may retain, archive, revise, repurpose, or otherwise use the Work in its discretion.

For larger, multi-work, institutional, or custom engagements, Gilded Whisker may require deposits, milestone payments, or a separate payment schedule, agreed in writing.

Delivery

Upon full payment, the final high-resolution master is delivered by a reasonable digital method of the Atelier’s choosing. If a delivered file is corrupted, inaccessible, or technically defective, the remedy is redelivery by a reasonable digital method — delivery issues do not reopen the artistic process or create any right to revision.

Format

The Work is composed to the commissioned format. Smaller prints made from the standard master generally hold equal fidelity, but any cropping, reframing, resizing, or reformatting — by the Patron or by a printer — is the Patron’s responsibility, as is the print quality, colour, and output of any third-party print service. A larger master may be requested, but pixel-level fidelity beyond the standard dimensions is not guaranteed.

Ownership

All authorship, copyright, moral rights, and archive and provenance rights in the Work — and in every working file, study, analytical artefact, method, prompt, system, and process behind it — remain exclusively with Gilded Whisker, at all times, including after the commission ends.

The Atelier’s creative method and internal process are proprietary and form part of its intellectual property. Nothing in the commission transfers any of it to the Patron.

Licence

Upon full payment, the Patron receives an unlimited personal, non-commercial licence to print the Work for personal display, share it for personal, non-commercial purposes, display it in personal spaces, and gift prints to family members or friends connected to the Kindred.

This licence is personal to the Patron. It does not include any commercial, sublicensable, assignable, or ownership interest in the Work.

Prohibited Uses

Without prior written permission from Gilded Whisker, the Patron may not:

• use the Work commercially — including sale, licensing, merchandising, fundraising, advertising, branding, endorsement, or promotion;
• sublicense, assign, or transfer any right to use the Work;
• materially alter, adapt, distort, or create derivative works from the Work;
• use the Work in connection with artificial intelligence, machine learning, model training, or dataset creation;
• mint, tokenize, register, or otherwise exploit the Work in connection with blockchain, NFTs, or similar technologies.

The Archive

The finished Work and its associated records form part of the House Collection. Gilded Whisker may archive, retain, catalogue, display, publish, reproduce, excerpt, and describe the Work and materials derived from the commission as part of its archive, portfolio, publications, exhibitions, and artistic record — including the Work itself, the Kindred’s first name, the Patron’s or Keeper’s first name, the title of the work, the year, narrative elements derived from the commission, and the maker’s reflections.

The archive is the House’s own and remains entirely under Gilded Whisker’s control. The Patron holds no right to review, direct, edit, approve, or access archival records or their presentation, before or after the commission. The Atelier may choose to show archival material to a Patron upon request, and is under no obligation to do so.

Privacy

Personal information, identifying records, and raw source materials are handled under the Gilded Whisker Privacy Policy. Nothing in these Commission Terms gives the Patron any ownership interest in transformed artistic outputs, internal working materials, archive materials, or final works.

Termination

Gilded Whisker may decline, pause, or end a commission at any time in its discretion — including where a request is abusive, misaligned with the practice, incompatible with the dignity or integrity of the work, or impracticable to complete.

Where the Atelier ends a commission before Reveal for reasons other than the Patron’s breach or misconduct, amounts already paid for work not performed are returned. Where the Patron pauses or ends the commission, amounts already paid are non-refundable unless otherwise agreed in writing.

If a commission ends before full payment and delivery, the Patron has no right to receive drafts, concepts, unfinished work, working files, source files, internal materials, or partial outputs.

Amendments

These terms evolve by published version: revisions apply to commissions opened after they are published, and the version accepted at commissioning governs each commission, as set out under Acceptance. An individual commission departs from these terms only by written agreement, expressly accepted by Gilded Whisker in advance. Silence, accommodation, or an isolated courtesy is not an amendment, and waives nothing.

No Guarantee

Gilded Whisker undertakes every commission with care, good faith, and professional artistic judgment. Because the work is interpretive and artistic in nature, no promise is made that the Patron’s subjective expectations, preferences, or emotional responses will align perfectly with the final result.

The two Accords are the means by which the work is clarified and carried forward — they are where alignment is built.

Liability

To the fullest extent the law permits, Gilded Whisker’s total liability arising out of or relating to a commission is limited to the amount actually paid by the Patron for that commission.

Gilded Whisker is not liable for any indirect, incidental, consequential, special, exemplary, emotional, reputational, or non-economic loss or damage arising out of or related to the commission, the process, the Work, or the Patron’s experience of either. This includes, without limitation:

• emotional distress, grief, discomfort, or re-traumatization arising from memories, narratives, or materials shared in the course of the commission;
• disappointment arising from subjective preference;
• costs incurred or expectations formed before the Atelier accepted the commission — preparations, photography, or other expenditures made in anticipation;
• third-party printing issues;
• loss arising from unauthorized use by others after the Patron shares the Work;
• loss arising from delay, pause, closure, or refusal of a commission.

Nothing in these terms excludes liability that cannot lawfully be excluded.

Third Parties

Gilded Whisker uses third-party services for hosting, communication, storage, file delivery, payment processing, and related operational purposes, and is not responsible for delays, outages, or failures caused by them beyond its reasonable control. Reasonable efforts are always made to complete delivery in an appropriate manner.

Capacity

By proceeding with a commission, the Patron confirms that they are of legal age and have the legal capacity and authority to enter into the engagement.

Governing Law

A disagreement comes to the Atelier in conversation before anywhere else. These Commission Terms, and any dispute arising out of or relating to a commission, are governed by the laws of the Province of Alberta and the federal laws of Canada applicable in Alberta. The Patron attorns to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of Alberta, sitting in Edmonton.

Severability

If any provision of these Commission Terms is found invalid, illegal, or unenforceable, the remaining provisions continue in full force and effect.

CONTACT

For questions, requests, or concerns arising from this policy, please contact the Atelier using the inline form.