use separate domain name for sections of a drupal site?

I am planning a site for an artist's collective.

Each artist will also have their own site (domain name) and be able to log in and keep it up.

It would be most convenient if they were, behind the scenes, all one Drupal site with different areas -- then artists could promote work to the common areas without logging in somewhere else, could have common discussion areas etc.

I have successfully had two domain names work for the exact same Drupal site -- e.g. http://stellauntalan.com and http://stellauntalangassaway.com.

There are symbolic links in each domain pointing to my drupal install and there are two folders in sites, one for each domain, with identical settings.php files -- so they serve the same database. But unlike using htaccess to forward, the domain stays constant during your entire session at the site.

So, can I take this one step further and somehow direct traffic that is coming into a specific domain name to a different front page? I know I can control the front page by role. If it was a physical directory on the webserver I could have the sym link go directly there, but of course it is not.

any creative ideas?

thanks!