SHOP TALK: Rob Schamberger Newsletter 11AUG24
I keep my visions to myself.
Hi. My name's Rob Schamberger. I'm that guy who paints rasslers. And other stuff. In the stillness of remembering what you had.
THE EMOTION SERIES
“Afraid”
Acrylic on 30” x 20” illustration board
This is the most I’ve struggled to make a painting in a while. The motion blur/ long exposure effect is something I’ve never really done before, especially with acrylic paint. I told my pal at the art supply store what I was trying to do with this and they said, “Yeah, I wouldn’t want to do that.” But, to do this authentically to my experience I needed to at least try.
I’ve made a point of letting the paintings in the Emotion Series speak for themselves, but I’m going to pull the curtain back a bit on this one. I’ve discovered that my trauma response is ‘Freeze’ and that’s what is being shown here. It used to be that only Fight and Flight were talked about, but there’s actually several possible responses one may experience, with the primary six being Fight, Flight, Freeze, Fawn, Fine and Faint. (Read more here if you’re interested.)
The Freeze response is where the brain becomes overwhelmed by over-stimulation, leading one to become frozen and unable to decide on a next move. I overall don’t experience fear very much, so I was trying to figure out how to do this painting. But then the idea hit me to go with my trauma response instead and I knew exactly what to do.
WORDS
The other night Katy was out with some friends, and at first my plan was to take it easy and watch a movie or something but instead I opted to walk a few blocks to our neighborhood bar and work on this painting of another one of the sculptures of Niobe’s children.
I don’t go in there that often, the last time being in early May. The bartender, who I’d only met that time, was immediately asking how the trip to Italy went! That’s something that blows me away about folks who work in public-facing jobs and especially in the service industry, how they see hundreds of people a day and can somehow remember each.
For instance, a bartender in Vegas remembered my food order from two years earlier. For real. Or, a server at a brunch place I go to, who I hadn’t seen in over a year because of the pandemic, as soon as I sat down she asked me if I wanted my regular scramble and hot tea. She got a $50 tip for that one!
Nothing but respect.
Here’s a preview of Thursday’s new Willow Nightingale painting. Looks wild before the definition comes in, right?
When I set out to make a painting, I visualize how I want the finished piece to look and then visualize each step to get it there. Like, if I close my eyes I see how it should look at each stage of the process. Naturally, I leave a lot of room for things to veer in different directions but even then the mental images of each stage change.
I don’t know if any of this is a good thing or not, just something I’ve noticed about how my brain works.
UPCOMING AEW/PWT PAINTINGS
Willow Nightingale - SIGNED
Orange Cassidy - SIGNED
Mark Briscoe - Spoiler: Red paint will be used for this.
Mariah May
Dustin Rhodes
Kamille
Card subject to change.
Rob’s Art on ShopAEW
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Rob and Jason Arnett's novella Rudow Can't Fail!
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Rob’s prints and shirts at Pro Wrestling Tees
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Instagram
Threads
Cara
YouTube
Date night!
YOU GOOD?
A few years ago Katy and I started doing intentional date nights, something more than just going out for a meal or a movie. Our favorite thing now is going to a trivia night on Thursday’s. Trivia’s good because no phones are allowed and we’re working together towards a common goal. We’re not very good at it, a couple times we’ve been in the top five but we’re normally ‘middle of the pack’ at best.
Actually, our favorite thing now is when we don’t know the answer. Like, don’t even know enough to make an educated guess. Totally in the dark. We lean into it and give the most ludicrous answers possible with the intention of getting the host to break when he sees our answer. Last week he just shook his head and said, “You mother@#$%ers…” at one of our intentionally bad answers.
I’m still mad about this past week when we didn’t know a song from Fantasia and I was too late to write, “Face Down, AXX Up” by 2 Live Crew.
Each team is given a whiteboard to put their answers on. Katy and I are, of course, World’s Finest. Because it’s a blank surface, I also draw something on the side each time. Last week’s was Skeletor. No one there knows what I do for a living, so it’s fun when someone says, “Wow, you should be an artist!” Also, they always think Katy’s the artist.
The Fantasia song was ‘The Sorcerer’s Apprentice’, of course. -shrug-
Love you more,
Rob