Anu Srivastav was comissioned to do a painting for us but completely flaked. Unprofessional and unreliable! Houston, Texas

We are sharing our experience online so that we could save someone else from going through a 3 month stressful nightmare like we did. We shopped around for artists and came across Anu Srivastav. We saw her online portfolio and were impressed by her artwork. We contacted her in August and commissioned her in early September to do a special painting. This painting was going to be a very sentimental gift to be given to our mother on a milestone birthday in mid-November. We met her in person to discuss the details, so she was aware of the importance of this gift. She seemed reliable and organized. One thing she offered on her own volition was to send weekly progress updates and we said wed be happy to receive just one progress picture halfway through this project. Over the next couple weeks, we swapped emails to discuss the color and background of the painting. After this point in late-September, things went downhill. Anu became increasingly difficult to reach, and there were long periods of time where there was no communication from her. After several weeks of not hearing from her we wondered if she was still working on the painting or whether we should get another gift. We attempted to reach her through different means - including texts, voicemails, emails, Facebook messages, and even asked a mutual acquaintance that knew her well if she could pass a message along from us. She finally emailed us in mid-October to say she would be emailing photos of the painting, but instead strung us along for 2 more weeks and the pictures never came. This breach of trust on her end was very disappointing for us.

A few days before the birthday event, Anu messaged us that the painting is available for pick up. She suggested meeting at 5pm at Starbucks, because that worked with her schedule. We anxiously agreed. We reached there on time, but an hour later at 6pm she texted she was still on her way. We called and texted numerous times, but she didnt respond to anything. At 7pm, she still had not showed up. We left her a message saying were leaving and to call back. Its been several weeks since the birthday and incredibly, she has made no attempts to contact us with an explanation or to apologize. This leads us to believe that Anu never did the painting, or had deceitful intentions from the very beginning. She is by far the most unprofessional, unreliable artist/vendor weve ever had the misfortune of dealing with. Stay away from this scam artist.