Too Much Exposition

my wait list to get a Free Painting has gotten so long that i'm now painting for people that first emailed me three years and four months ago. i used to just open the old emails, paint whatever they asked for and then the first time they ever heard back from me was an email with photographic proof that their painting was done. as the gap of time between first emailing me and an actual completed painting increased, the number of times people didn't respond after their painting was done very much increased. it was getting to the point where about 50% of my paintings didn't have a home. so now i email the requester before i paint to find out if

1. they still use the original email address
2. they still want the original painting subject they requested
3. they aren't dead

anyway, the point of that was to set up the fact that originally this request was for "a dapper guy from the roaring '20s". when i emailed to confirm all three of the above requirements, he changed his request to "a dapper guy from the roaring '20s in space". i guess since we're now in the future - compared to three years ago - he needed to be in space.