SHOP TALK: Rob Schamberger Newsletter 13JUL25
For some reason today I thought of you.
Hi. My name's Rob Schamberger. I'm that guy who paints rasslers. And other stuff. Crying tears of love in the light of mourning dawn.
WORDS
Study of Gian Lorenzo Bernini’s ‘Saint Lawrence’ Statue
Watercolor on 7” x 10” watercolor paper
I saw this statue at the Uffizi Gallery in Florence and I’ve wanted to do a little painting of it for a while now. The way the lighting was focused on its head was such a subtle thing but it’s what inspired me.
I did it last Sunday morning while we were in St Louis to go to the art museum there (more on that below). I tend to wake up a few hours before Katy and I’ve started bringing a small painting to do in the hotel lobby with a tea. We stayed at the 21C Museum Hotel in downtown STL, which had this wondrous giant water-filled glass sculpture that made for a nice view while I was working.
If you’re curious, my travel painting set is a Sakura Koi watercolor field sketch box with a water brush, a pencil, and a couple Faber-Castell Pitt brush-tip pens. I get asked a lot about the water brush especially, which is a cool tool. You unscrew it and fill the stem with water, and then that feeds down into the brush tip. You can squeeze the stem to feed water down to either dilute the pigment or to clean the brush out. Not great for studio work but pretty much ideal for travel.
It’s no longer about ‘political differences’ when one side has secret police and concentration camps.
UPCOMING AEW/PWT PAINTINGS
Kyle Fletcher
The Young Bucks
Mina Shirakawa
Thekla
Tay Melo
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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Bluesky
Cara
YouTube
WHAT I LIKED THIS WEEK
Thursday afternoon I went to see Superman and if it’s not the best Superman film then it’s tied with the 1978 movie. Action-packed, full of heart and hope with heroes who are heroes and villains who are villains. Really couldn’t be better. The cast were all spot-on, the humanity was tangible and it was the best kind of take on Superman: He saves people. Sure, he punches stuff but it’s all in the service of helping those in need.
It’s no wonder that the fragile assholes of the world hate it so much and feel like they’re being personally targeted.
Over the week Katy and I watched the miniseries Defending Jacob, a crime story about a couple’s son being accused of murder. The couple is played by Captain America and Lady Mary from Down Town Abbey (Okay, okay I know, ‘Downton’) who do an excellent job anchoring this dramatic look into the rippling victims of a brutal crime. It’s one of those that goes in a lot of unexpected directions, asking a lot of questions and answering some.
Monday evening I read Bowling With Corpses by Mike Mignola, a book I’d somehow missed when it came out. It’s a new world and characters from the Hellboy creator, allowing him to have fun drawing the stuff that interests him. As an artist myself, man I love the idea that Mignola found his success in drawing the stuff that he thinks is fun and just…not doing the other stuff. It comes through as a reader and appreciator of his work.
I read Radiant Black volumes 2 and 3 by Kyle Higgins, Mike Costa and friends. My pal Dal at Challengers Comics + Conversation turned me on to this when I was in Chicago a month or so back and I’m continuing on with the series. It’s a fun original superhero story introducing new concepts and making them collide with one another in explosive ways. Hey, the world’s rough and sometimes I just want to watch brightly-colored characters fly and punch and kick and splode.
Speaking of books that Dal at Challengers recommended to me, I also read Transformers volume 2 by Daniel Warren Johnson and Jorge Corona. Lots of robots punching and sploding with dramatic effect, just as one would want with a Transformers book.
Wednesday morning I read the magnificent Superman: The Last Days of Lex Luthor by Mark Waid, Bryan Hitch, Kevin Nowlan and friends, which might very well be a top five Superman comic. Lex convinces Superman to help him fight off a Kryptonite-based cancer, sending them to all corners of the Earth, to other dimensions and into the future to try to find a cure. There’s obviously more going on but it’s a properly herculean quest across time and space and into each of their core selves. Not a surprise, but Hitch and Nowlan draw the hell out of this. Hitch’s ability to be detailed yet dynamic with fully kinetic figures that both suck you in and keep you reading is unparalleled. Kevin Nowlan, a top tier illustrator in his own right blends his distinct style with Hitch’s while inking over him. There’s a two-page spread featuring the Legion of Super-Heroes that’s going to stay in my imagination in particular.
Last Sunday Katy and I went to the Saint Louis Art Museum (more on that next) and took in the incredible featured exhibit Roaring: Art, Fashion and the Automobile in France, 1918-1939. My favorite kind of exhibition right now is one that’s not just about one artist, but focused on that artist or art movement and placed in conversation with the world around them. It gives a better sense of context, I think.
I was interested in this and I knew it was right up Katy’s Paris-loving passions. But I was also totally drawn in by the art deco works and their origins in the automobiles being introduced into society. It’s a moment that had a profound impact on the culture of the time and seeing it all together, the cars, the fashions and the various forms of art was thrilling. I’ve made a point of getting the books for any featured exhibition we go to and man, this is a book I’ll truly treasure and study.
‘St Helena and the Emperor Constantine Presented to the Holy Trinity by the Virgin Mary’ by Corrado Giaquinto
THE SAINT LOUIS ART MUSEUM
Without further ado, Katy and I went to the St Louis Art Museum last Sunday for my birthday. It was my first time there and I was very impressed by their collection. It’s fascinating now that we’ve become museum nerds, paying attention to how different institutions focus on different facets of the art world.
‘The Sinking of the Titanic’ by Max Beckmann
For instance, St Louis has a remarkable collection of German expressionists, notably Max Beckmann. I’m more attuned to these works at the moment, as they were declared to be ‘degenerate works’ by the Nazis and the artists were either imprisoned/ killed or forced to flee their home countries. I DON’T KNOW WHY THAT WOULD SPEAK TO ME RIGHT NOW. Anyway. They have one gallery focused just on Beckmann’s works and it was stunning to see it all together in conversation with one another, presenting a variety of styles, subject matters and techniques.
‘Little Dancer of Fourteen Years’ by Edgar Degas
They also have a lovely collection of modern European art with the likes of Monet, Van Gogh and Degas. This was my first time seeing a Degas sculpture in person, a lovely little piece that stayed true to his overall visual style.
Side note: We stopped for a bite at the cafe (the food was lousy, my only criticism of the place) and seating was limited so Katy let a mother and (we’re assuming) her adult son sit with us at our table. The mother started complaining that she didn’t like all of this arty stuff and wanted more history-based exhibits. I didn’t say it at the moment but I said later to Katy, “If you don’t like art, maybe don’t go to an art museum.”
Like, I actually enjoy guiding people through how to enjoy an art museum if they’re genuinely interested but don’t know how. It’s fun seeing the moment they get it, it transforms a whole face. But there’s also people who actively dislike art, it makes them angry, and I leave them to that. Not everything’s for everyone.
‘Jolly Flatboatmen in Port’ by George Caleb Bingham
Back to the museum!
They also have an impressive collection of American works, including a large offering of George Caleb Bingham paintings. Funnily enough, even though he was based out of the Kansas City area we don’t have a lot of his work at the Nelson-Atkins Museum so it was delightful to study so many of them. There’s also a larger offering of works by black and female artists than one normally sees among this era of American paintings, offering a lovely chorus of voices speaking to the country’s population and how they existed.
The museum is definitely worth seeing if you’re in St. Louis and I’d say it’s worth making the trip unto itself.
Important Tiger Force Update
YOU GOOD?
I’m going to be honest, it was a rough week. My friend Lance was laid to rest on Friday and it’s brought up a lot of emotions I’m eager to start working through tomorrow morning in therapy.
What I noticed at the service was that the tangible afterlife is how we impact the people in our lives and how they carry on after we’re gone. It’s very complicated, there’s not pure good or pure evil like in religion or a superhero movie because humans are complicated. Good people can do bad things and bad people can do good things. The best we can hope for is that people have more joyous memories of us than hurtful when they think about our time together.
What’s real is how we feel and how we make others feel.
Lance was married to one of my best friend’s sisters. A few years ago we were all in Vegas to celebrate their parents’ 50th wedding anniversary, including a vow renewal officiated by an Elvis impersonator. At the party in their suite afterwards another Elvis showed up and entertained us and then just kinda stuck around. It had all of the elements of an A24 horror movie, y’know? Like a Killer Elvis or something? We were trying to figure out how to Escape Elvis. I found a side door and showed it to Lance. He put his hands on my shoulders, looked me square in the eyes and said with his whole heart, “Thank you.”
We reconvened down in the lobby and he and I had a hilarious conversation about notorious poop-thrower GG Allin as our wives tried to figure out the best way to get our group to Fremont Street. Katy worked it out with the doorman to score us a got-dang party bus which came rolling up with a smoke machine and ground effects and bass thumping. We laughed hard and Lance asked if this kind of thing happened with us regularly and I laughed and nodded.
I wish things had gone differently for you, Lance, but I love that we had our time together. I’m glad I have good memories of you.
Love you more,
Rob