SHOP TALK: Rob Schamberger Newsletter 10NOV24
And nothing has changed, everything has changed.
Hi. My name's Rob Schamberger. I'm that guy who paints rasslers. And other stuff. Everything has changed.
WORDS
Up front: The outcome of this week’s US elections has deeply affected me and I’m processing a lot, honestly swinging between dissociation, terror and rage. I’ll share more about that at the end and the tools I’ve learned in therapy to help manage my extreme emotions.
A part of that is making art, and more so making art that speaks to a greater sense of humanity. I spent the past week working on studies for the big project I’m starting in earnest in the next few days, trying to get the look for what I’m after. I thought I’d take you through my thought process in making these, to give you an inside look at how my creative mind tortures the bejeezus out of me.
For the one above, I liked the color palette a lot but I didn’t use the fabric enough in the composition. Pretty with no purpose, I guess. Absolutely nothing wrong with that, but not right for what I’m trying to do with these.
This one is really close. The color palette wasn’t quite right, but the fabric used as a framing device for the composition worked for me.
This one’s really close, with the fabric swimming around her, and also the shape of the non-fabric area framed by that sea of white and shadows. Too many shadows though. I think more white would have made this really sing.
I finished this one last night. I’m really happy with the sheer effect of the yellow fabric and how it both divides the composition and also frames what’s not covered by it. I feel like this gets me really close if not wholly there for the look and vibe I’m after.
Tomorrow I’m going to work up some sketches that I’ll bring along with these studies to give my photographer and model a sort of mood board to jump off from. All of this work is just to get me to the starting point and then the work really starts.
Hopefully in the next couple weeks I can share more about what this project is all about. Right now I can share that it’s something that came out of my work in therapy and also stylistically from what I learned in Florence and all of the paintings I’ve made since then.
Whatever I can do to not just curl up in a ball on the floor, I guess.
What’s black, white and red all over? A preview of Thursday’s new Brody King painting!
UPCOMING AEW/PWT PAINTINGS
Brody King
Konosuke Takashita
Sting
Card subject to change.
Rob’s Art on ShopAEW
###
Rob and Jason Arnett's novella Rudow Can't Fail!
###
Rob’s prints and shirts at Pro Wrestling Tees
###
Instagram
Threads
Cara
YouTube
I experienced more dislikes than likes this week for very obvious reasons, but in therapy I’ve learned a lot about holding multiple truths. For instance, things can be bad but there can still be good moments that occur. One doesn’t invalidate the other. So. Here we go.
WHAT I LIKED THIS WEEK
Katy and I finished watching The Diplomat season two. I like the campiness of it, although I have to say that the subject matter in retrospect now feels like something quaint from the before times. Still, Keri Russell is outstanding and holy moly Allison Janney is a force of nature.
Tuesday night Katy and I went to see Conclave, to avoid all of the election night stuff. HA! A movie about political intrigue and religious dogma sure wasn’t an escape and with how things turned out overnight…oof. But it’s a really great movie about the selection of a new pope when the old one dies and all of the very human machinations that make this such an imperfect process.
Gai-Jin by James Clavell is the longest audiobook I’ve listened to at 50(!) hours but I stayed engaged throughout. It’s the third in his Asian Saga series that started with Shogun, this book set in late 1800’s Japan and around both the European and American traders trying to get a foothold in the country, as well as the mounting civil war between the Shogunate and the imperial loyalists. A whole group of people making moves and manipulations towards their own senses of power and all of them ultimately falling apart by the whims of fate. Truly epic in scale and reach and at 50 hours it’s about the same as five seasons of a Netflix show!
Plus, it’s nice this week especially to see some sociopaths actually lose, even if it’s just in historical fiction.
The new DC vs Marvel Omnibus is a really fun read. It’s got all of the crossovers except the DC vs Marvel miniseries, the Amalgam and Access stuff (which are getting a separate omnibus soon), and the Busiek/ Perez JLA/ Avengers series. I’d read about half of these over the years, so this was a pleasant combination of revisiting old friends and meeting new ones. Standouts: Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez’ art on Batman/Hulk, everything about X-Men/Titans, Romita Jr and Klaus Janson’s art in Punisher/Batman, Graham Nolan’s Romita Sr-esque approach to Spider-Man in the Batman crossover, and Eduardo Barretto doing outstanding work over a perfect Alan Grant script for Batman/ Daredevil.
The standout for me, which was already my very favorite, is Superman vs Hulk by Roger Stern and Steve Rude. It’s Lee/Kirby-era Hulk against Byrne-era Superman and it’s among Rude’s finest work, which is saying something. There were several panels that made me just stop and stare at their glory.
On Friday I finished reading the excellent Blue Book volume two by James Tynion IV and Michael Avon Oeming, which wraps up this graphic novel telling of real people’s possibly real reports of UFO encounters and the governmental commissions tasked with looking into them. As a kid who grew up on the show Unsolved Mysteries and as someone who worked the graveyard shift at a gas station in 1998 listening to Art Bell’s Coast to Coast, this was right up my alley. There’s a part they share from the real Project Blue Book about why there were so many nighttime sightings in the late 40’s that’s really stuck with me: The electrification of America. Like, there were streetlights for the first time, reflecting off of the bottom of planes and migrating birds and people didn’t know what they were actually seeing. Hilarious! My pal Mike Oeming drew the hell out of this book, too. One of the best sequential artists working today.
I’m jealous of my cats. The only thing different for them this week is that Katy and I are petting them nonstop.
YOU GOOD? BECAUSE I’M NOT. BUT IT’S OKAY TO NOT BE OKAY.
As someone who falls into two groups that will eventually be targeted by Project 2025 (LGTBQ and the arts) and the people behind it, I’m not sugarcoating any of this. I’m not overreacting, either. It’s a matter of just how bad this will end up being. If you’re unfamiliar, here’s an overview of the people involved in crafting this ideology and what’s included in it and here’s a real-world example of what to expect.
So. I’m left to work out with Katy how exactly we’re going to proceed through this new reality and we’re actively exploring all options.
Beyond that, in the moment, I’m using my therapy tools to manage my heightened emotions so that I can keep regulated as much as possible. My hope in sharing them here is to help anyone who needs to read something like this.
The human brain is a prediction engine with two purposes: To predict the future, and to do so as efficiently as possible. The accuracy of those predictions is not actually one of its functions so you have to consciously add that in, which is where the tools come in.
First, recognize that you’re not doing okay. Don’t invalidate those feelings, either, they’re real and valid. Next, stop to think about what’s happening that has left you not feeling good. Your prediction engine brain is looking at things you’ve experienced in the past to predict what’s going to happen next. Consciously think, “That’s what happened then, but that was a different time from now. Right now is something new.” Then start doing something else. Walk in a different room, put down the phone, do something to reset your environment. Find something physical to do, like going for a walk or doing a chore, something to put you in the moment to break the part of your brain that’s telling you that you’re in imminent danger.
I can confirm that I do this sometimes and have over the past week. It’s worked for me at least.
You may also need to reset your heart rate. Here’s one way my therapist taught me: Squeeze the end of your pinky for four seconds. Let go and pinch the part of your pinky past your first joint for four seconds. Repeat with the area past your second joint, and then move on to do it with your ring finger, middle and pointer. You may need to do it with the fingers of your other hand, although for me I’m normally good by the end of the first hand. This is another technique that helps put you in the moment and solely focusing your brain on something beyond what’s troubling you.
Here’s a link to one that our couples counselor has done with Katy that’s helped both of us a lot, about grounding yourself through focusing on your five senses. Especially helpful for people who struggle with anxiety. I’m more of a depression/PTSD guy myself, but the main concept is great for anyone who’s feeling overwhelmed.
If you haven’t already, you’re going to hear from well-intentioned people who in trying to show you support or kindness are instead invalidating your feelings or showing a blindness to what you’re experiencing. When they say something like, “It’ll be okay,” that’s more about them trying to and not about you and shows the dichotomy between intention and impact. They mean well, but from your end it can feel like they’re not hearing or seeing you, and thus invalidating your experience. Again, your feelings are real and valid. You can hold the truth that they’re meaning well and also hold the truth that it may not land well with you and one doesn’t invalidate the other. You’re the one who knows what feels right for you.
Okay, so with all of that, the metaphor of putting your own oxygen mask on first and then helping others put on their masks can apply. Reach out to the people in your life who need to know that they’re loved, and simply tell them that you love and care about them. It’s a very unsure near future for trans people and immigrants (well, the non-white ones) especially. Let them know you care and that what they’re feeling is real and valid. It’s an unsure future for a lot of groups, grimly too many to list.
For me, there’s only two real things that matter in life: How we feel and how we make others feel. It kind of all boils down to that. Unfortunately, it seems that too many people lost sight of that second part. At least for me, in my corner of this planet, I’m going to keep doing my best to focus on both.
I genuinely love you and care about you,
Rob