2022 in Review and a Question

I made some paintings this year.

Here’s MOST of what I painted this year. The Very Important Top Secret Project isn’t in here, nor the Bron Breakker I’m making right now because, you know, I’m still making it. A little over 70 paintings in 2022!

Not bad.

I feel like I did a good job on most of them, only a couple I personally am not happy with. No, I won’t tell you which ones because I’ve learned work I don’t like can still be someone else’s favorite and I don’t want to take that away from anyone. Art’s subjective, anyway!

I made what I consider to be my very best work this year, between the Wrestling Landscape Paintings and a few others. A lot of dots connected for my brain this year, both creatively and in my personal life that led to new levels being hit from my vantage point.

What else…

I stopped doing the Select Series and redirected that energy to the Landscapes, which I think was a great move. It’s a part of my longterm focus on quality over quantity.

I worked Madison Square Garden, which is a thing everyone in wrestling has on their bucket list.

WrestleMania Axxess was a personal, creative and financial masterpiece. Not only was it our highest sales ever for Axxess but it MORE THAN DOUBLED our prior Axxess event in 2019. I made two important paintings in the Undertaker and the Razor Ramon tributes. A huge thanks to Katy, Andy and Gene for working nonstop to help me make this happen. Our exhibit was high quality and the fans seemed to love it, especially the gallery wall.

Sales are rising dramatically. Next year is projected to double 2021 with this year halfway between the two. What a wild sentence to type out! Thank you to my friend David who helps me get packages out full of the art that you’re supporting. He’s been helping me out for a little over a year now.

Pretty cool!

Importantly, I feel like I’m doing big and meaningful work in therapy. I’m moving towards being a better partner to my wife, a better friend to the people in my life, a better professional for my work contacts, and a better person overall. I’ve made some monumental moves in my personal life lately that I’m seeing immediate results from and am anticipating rapid growth from as time marches on. That’s pretty cool, too.

Which brings me around to my question for you.

Mid-January I’m going to slow down in the number of new paintings I’m doing, probably debuting a new one every-other-week instead of each week. WWE’s been awesome about this and fully supportive, so the next thing is what to do with this here newsletter. My thought is one week will be the new painting and the other week will be the conversational thing that we do on Thursdays, but moved to every other Sunday. BUT I LOVE SHARING ART WITH YOU! So, here’s that question:

Would you like to get additional emails, no more than one a day, with random older paintings I’ve done? It’d just be that, you getting a piece of art in your inbox. Not spammy, not sales-driven (I mean, I’d have my links at the bottom but nothing more than that), just a moment of wrasslin’ art zen to start your day.

I don’t know what I fear more, that no one wants to see it or that no one will bother to vote. It’s like Election Night all over again.

Hey, we can chat!

Meanwhile, the private chat has been fun so far! It’s a curtain-fully-pulled-back experience where I’m completely open to any question, share previews of upcoming paintings, and we chat live during WWE shows. Well, most of them. As long as I’m also watching. I’ll be working SmackDown tomorrow for instance so I won’t be able to join in live but I’ll give exclusive backstage scoops like what’s being served in catering.

WWE catering is actually amazing right now. It’s a perfect balance of clean food for the athletes and a recreation of a Biggest Loser Temptation Challenge for the rest of us. Friend, the desserts are equally heavenly and devilish. That’s the kind of deep insider knowledge you’ll only get from me!

Okay! See you Sunday for the new Sami Zayn vs Kevin Owens painting!

Love you more,

Rob