CM PUNK: Rob Schamberger Newsletter 31DEC23

One more time.

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Hi. My name's Rob Schamberger. I'm that guy who paints rasslers. And other stuff. We don’t stop, you can’t stop.

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WORDS  

“I made a new painting of CM Punk,” was not something I had on my 2023 bingo card. I started working with WWE the week he and the company parted ways, so this is actually my first official painting of him. Back in the day when I started making art focused on pro wrestling, it was my paintings of CM Punk that really put me on the map so it’s cool to finally do this all under the same umbrella.

For this piece, I thought it appropriate to make a painting from CM Punk’s surprise return to WWE at the 2023 Survivor Series. It’s a mostly representative acrylic painting with some artistic flourishes because I just can’t help myself. It felt good to make, like being able to come home again.

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EMOTION SERIES

‘Anger’

Acrylic on 20” x 30” illustration board

The latest in my series of paintings exploring how I experience different emotions as a person with PTSD and Reactive Attachment Disorder.

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ICYMI, here's the latest Canvas 2 Canvas episode. Tomorrow’s episode will go up on WWE's YouTube channel at 12PM CST!

UPCOMING PAINTINGS  

• Kairi Sane

• Iyo Sky

• Randy Orton

Card subject to change.

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Hundreds of prints and paintings at Schamberger Labs!
Rob and Jason Arnett's novella Rudow Can't Fail!
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Prints and Signed Prints at WWE Shop
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Instagram
Threads
YouTube

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WHAT I LIKED THIS YEAR (PART 2: THE VIEWING)

These are in no particular order, by the way.

THE SHOWS

Barry season three - What a perfect finale. A wonderful balance of humor and the horror of humanity. If Bill Hader quit acting today and just became a director, I feel like within ten years he’d only be remembered as a director. And I’m saying that as a big fan of his acting.

The Bear - Katy and I watched both seasons for the first time this year and were immediately sucked in. Having worked in restaurants in my late teens it matched my memories pretty much perfectly, and that’s before even getting into the very familiar family dynamics.

Picard season three - Thanks to my good friend Jake Black I had the honor to go to the world premiere of this at the historic Mann’s Theatre in Hollywood. Totally a huge life goal checked off with that one. Sharing a screening with the cast of Star Trek: The Next Generation and Sir Patrick Stewart himself was something I still can’t believe actually happened.

Reservation Dogs season three - Another show that finds that balance of humor and brutal drama, making each element more powerful as it goes. I really, really loved this series and if I were to put these in order it’d probably be my number one.

The Marvelous Mrs Maisel season five - The way this series went into full magical realism with this season especially, feeling like a gigantic classic Hollywood musical while also having the huge narrative scope of a Citizen Kane is something to behold. The best use of an Amazone Prime budget I’ve seen.

I don’t have Fargo season five on here because it’s not done yet but holy moly this is some incredible television. Also, if I were to exclude my personal connection to Picard, I’d probably have Love & Death on this list instead.

THE MOVIES

Godzilla Minus One - My friend David and I agreed that this is the best movie that also happened to have Godzilla in it. A poignant and hopeful tale of survivor’s guilt in post-WWII Japan.

Creed III - Katy and I’s first movie back in a theater together since around 2019 I think. I really liked how it became all about the Creed family, where they’ve been and where they’re going.

The Killer - David Fincher back to form and playing to his strengths, in my opinion. I enjoyed the graphic novels it was based on and was curious how it would translate, and the answer was “Very well, actually.”

Priscilla - Of all the movies I saw this year, this one’s haunted me the most. I haven’t quite put a finger on why yet, probably stuff I’ll dive into in therapy, but this seriously resonated with me.

The Holdovers - Just watched this last night! A beautiful story about unwanted lonely people who find common ground between one another. Resonated with me in a big personal way.

OTHER STUFF

Tokyo Calling by Atarashii Gakko! and its music video are simply way cool. Everything cool. (It’d be next level if WWE booked them to do this as a part of Iyo Sky’s entrance at a big event like WrestleMania, right?)

DJ Shadow’s new album Action Adventure has been my favorite top-to-bottom album of the year, easily.

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JUST FOR FUN

We were with Katy’s family over the holiday weekend, meaning I was away from the studio for a few days. I like to keep in practice as much as I can, and I seriously love the new Koi watercolor travel set I got a few months ago so I brought it along with a block of watercolor paper. If you’re unfamiliar, watercolor paper blocks have the glue on all four sides instead of just at the top like a normal pad of paper and this keeps the paper from warping.

Monday morning I woke up really early, so this became a perfect time to make a little 9x6 painting for fun. I like how the colors turned out, especially.

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It’s RoboCop. Playing a trumpet. Don’t overthink it, bro.

YOU GOOD?  

Welp, that was 2023.

One of the big things I regularly use that I’ve learned in therapy is the concept of holding multiple, often competing truths. They can all be true and don’t cancel one another out. It was that kind of year for me.

I went to the big island in Hawaii, did the cover for WWE 2K23, saw the commercial for it live at the Royal Rumble, and went to the world premiere for Picard at Mann’s Theatre in Hollywood. And that was all just in January! Those great things are true.

But there was also a lot of behind-the-scenes career and contractual stuff that contributed to this being one of the hardest years of my life. Not being a part of WrestleMania for the first (non-pandemic) time in 10 years and about six months of my work being unavailable through WWE while also needing to spend a lot to level up for when they went back up. But there were also stretches of time where I genuinely thought it was all over. Those hard things are true.

But all of that was necessary to take my business to a significantly larger scale that we’re just now starting to capitalize on with the Schamberger Labs Art Fulfillment Center, even though it came at a large personal and financial cost. Both things are true.

Those hard times and a dissatisfaction at times with my career inspired me to start making the Emotion Series paintings, which are the most rewarding and fulfilling pieces of art I’ve ever made. That’s also true.

Our old man cat Korma passed away after months of declining health. Losing him allowed Tikka to come into our lives. Both things are true.

I’m so glad to be done with 2023. I’m looking forward to what I’ll be able to do next year due to the tolls paid over the past twelve months.

Holding these multiple truths allows me to fully acknowledge the impact of how they made me feel and doesn’t invalidate any of them. The good things coming from the hard things doesn’t mean those hardships didn’t really knock me down. But those hardships don’t mean that I can’t celebrate the good things. They’re all true.

Thanks for coming to my therapy session. See you next year.

Love you more,
Rob

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EXCLUSIVE PAID SUBSCRIBER CONTENT

Paid subscribers this week will get an exclusive 25% off discount code for prints! You’ll also know about the signed prints coming soon to WWE Shop! Lots of them. Plus, 24 hour early access to the original CM PUNK painting! Exclamation points!