SHOP TALK: Rob Schamberger Newsletter 13APR25
What's running through my mind comes through in my walk.
Hi. My name's Rob Schamberger. I'm that guy who paints rasslers. And other stuff. I’m like Jimmie Walker, I’m dy-no-MITE.
WORDS
NEEDS: FINANCIAL SECURITY
Watercolor on 12” x 16” watercolor paper
“Feeling confident in your ability to navigate life’s financial challenges.”
Funny one for this week, right?
I really deviated from my original sketch for this one (pictured above) and I credit that to the joy of collaboration. In our shoot with Joanna, photographer Paul gave her the idea to throw the fabric up in the air and then let it fall over her. It was truly magical and I wanted to play around with that again with Doug, as I saw that it could evoke something closer to the idea I wanted to convey with this painting.
It creates a fascinating tree-shaped composition that gave me a lot of room to play with. It’s one of my favorites I’ve done so far with this series.
I keep saying that, don’t I?
There’s generally two ways to deal with a hurtful narcissist: Take no action, which tells them that it’s okay to continue treating you that way. Or, stand up to them and face whatever consequences may come with their reaction. You’re the one who knows what’s right for you.
I’m not sure which of these will be the one that comes out on Thursday. I’ll let you know on Bluesky once I’m told.
UPCOMING AEW/PWT PAINTINGS
Julia Hart
Megan Bayne
Timeless Toni Storm
Swerve Strickland
Hangman Adam Page
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
Katy and I caught up on The White Lotus season three in time for its finale. We haven’t watched the first two seasons yet, but this is overall self-contained and the bit that connects to what came before is explained within the season enough that we didn’t feel like we missed out (although we’ll definitely make our way back to the rest). A bit of a tangent, but maybe my favorite Greta Garbo movie is Grand Hotel, a sort of an anthology of the people staying in a hotel and their brief dramas while they’re there, coming and going. It’s a great setup for a series and White Lotus plays within that really well.
Hacks season four made its welcome debut a few days ago. We fell in love with this show back when it started and MAN these characters have had some growth over these seasons. I’m fascinated to see where it goes.
We also started watching Adolescence and immediately got sucked right in. A true masterpiece of both story and execution about a murder where the main suspect is a young boy and how this affects him and his family, and the loss of the victim’s life impacts the community as a whole. Each episode is what’s known as a ‘oner’ where it all happens in real time, in one take, on one camera. FOR AN HOUR. I’m stunned by how powerful every level of this miniseries is.
Yesterday morning I finally watched the Beastie Boys Story, forgetting that it’s on Apple TV+. Not gonna lie, I got choked up a few times. Their music and their lives around it are kind of ingrained in my DNA. For instance, Hello, Nasty came out a couple weeks after I turned 18 and I consider the whole album to be my entrance music into adulthood. Watching Adam ‘Adrock’ Horowitz and Mike ‘Mike D’ Diamond tell their story and how being their true authentic selves ultimately led them to their truest success is so beautiful.
Plus, they reveal that their License to Ill personas were based on a combination of The Three Stooges and Rowdy Roddy Piper.
I was fortunate enough to see them on the Hello, Nasty tour, where the openers were Money Mark, A TRIBE CALLED QUEST, and Mix Master Mike and it’s easily still the best concert experience of my life.
The Yellowjackets season three finale finally gave us the answer to who the ‘pit girl’ was from the series one premier with a shocking revelation about where these girls were mentally during that time and what it says about them now as women in the modern day. Also, I’m fully on board with what looks to be ‘Highlander rules’ for season four, AKA there can only be one.
I haven’t read it all yet but The New York Trilogy by Paul Auster, David Mazzucchelli, Paul Karasik and Lorenzo Mattotti is a welcome surprise. The first part with Mazzucchelli came out decades ago and it seemed like it would never be finished but then whammo, here’s all of the rest including part of it by MATTOTTI.
Last Sunday Katy and I stopped in at a local used bookstore, Prospero’s and I picked up a couple art books for my collection. The first is a nice hardback of Alphonse Mucha: The Complete Graphic Works. I’ve played around a couple times with a Mucha art deco influence but his work is so distinct that I can only end up looking like a cover band version so instead I just study and marvel.
But you know what else I found?
A FIRST EDITION of Creative Illustration by Andrew Loomis! Time was, these Loomis how-to books were impossible to find and long out of print. They’re readily available now, but it felt like I was on some sort of hidden camera show finding this for fifteen bucks out in the wild. I plan to spend some time with this, learning from his approach and seeing what I can add to and improve what I do. For instance, there’s a fantastic bit showing some photo reference, a pencil study, and then the painting he made. I love looking at the decisions he made, what he chose to be faithful to, what to deviate from, what to include, what to omit. Awesome stuff to learn from.
IMPORTANT VINEGAR UPDATE
On Monday I was pouring a newly-finished batch of red wine vinegar into a bottle and discovered it had stealthily developed a Mother of Vinegar, which is a huge deal. I pulled it out so that I could cut it in half and use it to start a couple new batches. As you can see in the picture it kind of looks like that canned cranberry sauce from Thanksgiving. But, naturally, I had to touch it out of curiosity and it actually felt more like a firm piece of cardboard instead of gelatinous. Fascinating!
I transferred the pieces of the Mother into a couple jars with about a fifth each jar of the vinegar and then filled each up with more red wine. Adding the Mothers and the bit of red wine vinegar inserts the kind of alcohol-eating bacteria I want to jumpstart the conversion.
(I crack up at the idea of people who originally signed up for this newsletter for my rasslin’ art that are now getting inundated with homemade vinegar talk and paintings about my feelings and them being utterly baffled at the journey I’ve been on.)
((They probably love the recipes, though.))
BUT WAIT THERE’S MORE
YOU GOOD?
On Wednesday I started my vegetable garden with 18 bell pepper plants. I had incredible luck with them last year and am hoping to at least get the same level of success this season.
If you’re wondering why the soil looks like that, I compost my vegetables and egg shells year-round. The shells create a nice shale to the soil, giving the roots something to push against and grow around. It’s super-organic at this point as I’ve been composting for around five years now.
Gardening is my very favorite thing to do. The routine of the watering, the pulling of weeds, just standing and admiring the plants each day as they’re a little bigger, a little stronger, moving towards producing vegetables that in a few months I get to, like, EAT. And cook with!
We’re not quite there yet with the flower garden, as there’s still a few cold nights ahead but soon enough that’ll be going full strength as well. Soon enough!
It was in 2020 with everything that ratfucker of a year did to life in general that I discovered the joy of just for a few moments, being IN those moments and allowing the joy of them to be experienced. Seems like we’re in for a series of ratfucker years, but at least for a few moments of each day I get to enjoy helping these plants grow.
Love you more,
Rob