Joe and I are thrilled to have the Forum up and running. We bought the domain name for Total Art Soul well over a year ago with the idea that we would start up some kind of artists' community. Due to time constraints, we didn't get it off the ground and meanwhile I started a group on Facebook under the same name just to test the water. I very quickly had over 500 members there in the space of a couple of months with numbers just over 700 today. The group there has been a little quiet, again because of time constraints, I didn't have much time to devote to it.

The idea lays behind the fact that the days of doing apprentices with other artists seems to be gone. Where then do us artists learn new skills? For those of us that are not lucky enough to be able to go to Art School, it is a big problem. Finding out vital practical skills is often done by talking with people. Being inspired and encouraged by others is something you can only do by talking with other artists. As the internet is now very much the way to communicate, Total Art Soul was borne.

This Forum is free to join for any kind of creative person. We have categorized all the different creative fields to make it easier to find information on your subject. We have also added a Member Spotlight section so that you can share the members you feel inspired by.

This site is still very much in its infancy and will evolve over time with your input. Any suggestions you may have will be welcomed and considered. We need to get more members first in order to put in place certain things like contests and featured artists. It is foreseen that we will have a weekly contest and will feature an artist on the blog so they can get extra exposure.  We will also incorporate galleries for artists so that they can showcase their work. This is taking a little bit of time to set up and we will let you know when it's in operation.

I'd like to thank all of you who have joined already. It's heart warming to see how much support we have already from many familiar faces I've got to know over the years of being on the internet. It's a wonderful start to the new year and I sincerely hope we can make this site work for all of you.

Cathy and Joe

To take a look at the forum, simply click here.