When Artisans Chat: Online Forums

In addition to painting, most artists love to chat, gossip, share, ask for guidance and yes, gripe.? Artisans have formed guilds and communities over the centuries in order to help ensure the longevity of their particular discipline. Today, we can find an evolution of sorts for these communities: online forums.? I wanted to take the time to guide you on some of the more popular ones, each one with their own set of moderators, artisans and options.? In the interest of full disclosure, I am a moderator at Talk Faux and enjoy it immensely — but I think each and every online forum has something wonderful to offer.? I only wish I had time to interact within all of them consistently and enjoy the special camaraderie of each. ? Here we go:

1) Talk Faux – Run by Kathy Boyd, it features twelve moderators, including Dean Sickler, Sass Lassley and Kathy Carroll.? Talk Faux has a comprehensive message board broken down by categories (both personal and professional) and disciplines (from concrete to trompe l’oeil and everything else in between).? There is also an international board for those who’d like to chat in other languages, monthly contests, chat rooms and an extensive gallery to gather inspiration.? I find the friendships easy and ego-free with a lot of good questions asked and advice given.? Registration and membership are free.? Kathy also has a few other resource sites (such as House of Faux and Artists Underground) and Art Fusion (a site along the lines of Facebook, with groups, profile pages, slideshows, etc.).

2) Faux Forum – Patrick Ganino, who owns and runs the forum, says “Too often in the scramble to reach success we become self involved and forget the benefits of community. Sharing the knowledge that we acquire as individuals with a group of like minded people only helps the decorative painting industry grow.? With the Faux Forum, we have established a monumental on-line resource for decorative painters and muralists internationally in a non-competitive environment.”? The Faux Forum recently partnered up with Method to provide an excellent resource center.? The Faux Forum has ten moderators, including Sean Crosby, Sheri Hoeger and Pierre Finkelstein.? Registration and membership are free.

3) Atrium Online – This is the online chapter of IDAL.? Membership in IDAL is required and the January – December yearly fee to join Atrium Online is $10.? The site is moderated by IDAL’s officers, including this year’s president, Morey Curtis Dunbar.? The message boards are open to all members and listed by category.

4) Murals Plus – The site is owned by Martin Hirsch.? The site has been active since 1997 and boasts over 17,000 members.? They do have thirteen wonderful moderators, including Melanie Royals, Gary Lord and Susan Bickford.? Membership and registration is free and they also have an extensive message board with ample archives to search through.? Their gallery has over 16,000 images.

5) Venetian Plaster Forum – The forum was conceived by John Parkin of San Francisco’s Parkin Drywall.? Moderator Debra Campbell says that the forum came about in the hopes that there would be a place that everyone could talk about all plasters and not be tied to any particular distributor or manufacturer. The categories range from pricing to marketing and also include a picture gallery and studio information.? Membership and registration are free.

These are the five (5) online forums that come to mind.? If you know of any that I missed or would like to add anything about the ones profiled, please let me know in the comment section.? This is intended as a comprehensive guide to those who’d like to join a group — all information is greatly appreciated.? Thank you — and happy chatting!