Thank You - All Of You For Helping Me With The Toucan Problem!
After carefully considering everything you suggested, I sent an email and here is what I received. Needless to say, I'm very happy with this!
On Sunday, June 14, 2015 8:51 AM, Riham El-Mograby wrote:
Dear Lil,
Apologies for the late reply to your message. It was the weekend here in
Egypt when you sent your message and we are just back to work.
The CSA is a not-for-profit community center dedicated to the support of
expatriates in Egypt. We have several activities that go on premises among
which are Art Galleries so yes, we surely appreciate and respect art and
artists. The Oasis magazine is our free publication that we distribute in
expat neighborhoods around Cairo to stay connected and updated about our
activities. Our standard process for magazine covers is to get them from
Depositphotos.com or Shutterstock.com where we have an annual subscription.
That being said, please accept our sincere apologies as I assure you that
what happened with the Oasis April 2014 issue is absolutely an unintentional
mistake and a novice choice. We were looking for a Toucan cover for this
issue and this image was presented by an intern (with the signature
cropped). We had absolutely no knowledge it was your work or else we would
have surely asked for your permission, kept your signature and credited you
inside the magazine issue.
Regarding the compensation, a monetary one of $250 (thank you for reducing
the amount) is an option that we would like to avoid being a not-for-profit
organization. We feel that for better relations with you and to market your
artwork, we are willing to offer instead to make an article feature (1-2
pages) in our September 2015 issue about you and your work mentioning your
bio and ways to purchase your art along with an apology for the April 2014
Oasis cover mistake. We hope you will appreciate our position and take this
offer into consideration. We will also surely mail you a copy of the April
2014 issue and after seeing your entire collection, we will put you in mind
in our selection of future magazine covers.
By the way, I am personally happy to have got to know who you are and see
your work. You have a lovely collection of artwork and your use of strong
colors with such great harmony reflects your confidence in your artistic
style and an unmistakable talent which is what attracted us to your Toucan.
Once again, our sincere apologies and please let us know your thoughts to be
able to proceed with the compensation we agree on and a signed release.
Thanks to all of you for your level-headed replies!!
Lil