SHOP TALK: Rob Schamberger Newsletter 12JAN25

Most thoughts deserve two or three more.

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Hi. My name's Rob Schamberger. I'm that guy who paints rasslers. And other stuff. And the only word you'll ever need to know in life is, “Why.”

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WORDS  

ACCEPTED

Acrylic on 30” x 20” illustration board

The final painting from The Emotion Series, where I’ve been exploring how I experience core emotions as a person with PTSD and childhood attachment injuries.

Thank you so much to the Denzer family for sitting in on the reference shoot for this and to my good friend and photographer Paul Andrews for giving me so much to work with.

Here’s the rest of the paintings I made for this collection, clockwise from the top left: Alone, Excited, Angry, Loving, Confident, Sad, Interested, Overwhelmed, Dislike, Afraid and Embarrassed.

Equally the hardest and most fulfilling body of work I’ve ever made. I’m so glad I did these but hoo-boy I’m equally glad to be done with them. It took a lot out of me with almost all of them to fully look at what I struggle with on the inside, to have put this amount of thought and effort into how I exist with each of these concepts and to then be faced with physically looking at them. It’s tough. It was hard working on this painting this week when I’m grappling with a lot of external factors that speak to my condition.

But going from the micro to the macro, it was a painting by Thomas Lea called The Two Thousand Yard Stare that ultimately led to what we now know as Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), and thus treatment for it. Beyond the revelations this body of work have given me in making them, it would be profound if any bit of them could help others like me some way in the future.

All of that said, thank you to the people who have welcomed me into their lives with openness and love, even when a part of me is on the outside looking in.

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That was heavy. Here’s a palette cleanser!

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Here’s a preview of Thursday’s Outrunners painting that I made back in the 80’s. Excited to finally debut it.

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UPCOMING AEW/PWT PAINTINGS  

• The Outrunners - SIGNED!

• Adam Cole

• Toni Storm

• Kenny Omega

• Cope

• The Hurt Syndicate

Card subject to change.

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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
Bluesky
Cara
YouTube

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WHAT I LIKED THIS WEEK

Yesterday I finished watching the fourth season of For All Mankind. I gotta say, season three took some bigger swings and was more my cup of tea but four was still outstanding. Three had some very fascinating examinations of generational trauma with a couple second-generation astronauts that was possibly the best take on that I’ve seen in a show. Both three and four brought in a lot of actors from The Americans, which Katy and I just wrapped our annual rewatch of and it was cool spotting each of them. Looking forward to both season five and the spinoff series Star City when they come out later this year.

While painting yesterday I also finished the audiobook for Lazarus Man by Richard Price. I’m a fan of Price’s books going back to Clockers and especially Lush Life so it was a delight to see a new one from him. This book is told from multiple characters’ perspectives, revolving around a disaster and how it pushes each of them to different truths and life decisions as they weave in and out of each others’ paths.

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Guys doing guy stuff.

YOU GOOD?

Over the past couple of months Tikka has slowly become a lap cat, which Katy and I are wild about. None of our cats have really been interested in the lap but this boy’s all about it. Especially nice as we’re still in the midst of our arctic storm since he’s a little furry furnace.

Love you more,
Rob

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