SHOP TALK: Rob Schamberger Newsletter 04JUN23

Smoke on the water, a fire in the sky.

Hi. My name's Rob Schamberger. I'm that guy who paints rasslers. And other stuff. No matter what we get out of this, I know we’ll never forget.

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WHAT’S NEW?  

Black-Crowned Night Heron

Ink and watercolor on 9” x 12” watercolor paper

One evening during our last trip to Hawaii I was walking along the beach at sunset, about half a mile down and as the last vestiges of the sun were dancing along the coast I saw this black-crowned night heron stalking the edge of the water for its dinner.

This is the first of three paintings I started while our cat Korma was still alive that I finished after he passed. This was actually completed the day we said goodbye to him, done to keep myself from drifting too far into grief by doing something mentally and physically soothing. Really I spent most of the past week noodling at this while I cared for him next to my drawing table.

It gives this piece some extra beauty for me personally. He’ll always be a part of it.

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ICYMI, here's last week's Canvas 2 Canvas episode. Turned out pretty snazzy in my opinion.

UPCOMING VIDEOS  

• 6/11 - LA Knight. YEAH.

• 6/25 - Alba Fyre and Isla Dawn

• 7/9 - Pretty Deadly

Card subject to change.

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Hundreds of prints and paintings at Schamberger Labs!
Rob and Jason Arnett's novella Rudow Can't Fail!
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Instagram
YouTube

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ROCK VS AUSTIN WRESTLING LANDSCAPE

I finished up the ringside area with the cameramen and photographers. I did this part pretty traditionally-for-me with the acrylic paint, first deepening the black shadows and then building up the tones and colors on each of them.

Next week: In-ring action begins!

This is the second in the trilogy of paintings that I started while Korma was with us that I’ll finish after his passing. His contributions must be why it’s turning out so nice.

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KORMA FANCYPANTS SCHAMBERGER

Friday morning Katy and I made the hard decision to say goodbye to our best buddy Korma. Sixteen years ago he showed up on our front doorstep as a baby kitten with his two brothers. It was over a hundred degrees and his little tongue was hanging out because he was so hot. I brought them in with the intention to find good homes for them. The other two were adopted and he won what we called Kitty Survivor by climbing up the blanket on our bed in the middle of the night, crawling between us and purring the whole night while we pet him. We found a good home for him, too.

He grew to be a fantastic, loving and funny man who took care of his big sister Monkey, Katy and I, and later his little sister Kima. He pretty much despised all other humans but was the absolute best to Katy and I. If we were down, he showed right up, purring and nuzzing and loving. If we were sick he was stuck to us. When he did that we called him Dr Kormazon, MD. The ‘MD’ stood for ‘Medical Dude’ naturally.

He was a chonk chonk monster truck of a cat and we loved petting that oversized belly, using him as a purring pillow or when he would make a nest between Katy’s legs while she slept, keeping her safe through the night. His favorite thing other than us was canned food, which he would sing and dance for until he got to scarf it up. In hindsight I say singing and dancing, but he honestly just yelled until he got his way. He was the boss, applesauce.

FYI, his wrestling name was Kortista and his entrance song was Deep Purple’s Smoke on the Water. When he used the litter box we said he was ‘Dropping a Kortista Bomb.’ Covering it up was his version of shaking the ropes.

Thursday night, knowing what was coming the next morning, we lay on each side of Korma at the foot of the bed and pet him all night just like we did our first night with him sixteen years ago. It was the most perfect final night with him possible and Katy and I feel so fortunate to have that time with our guy. Not just that final night, but every moment of every day since he first showed up on our door, the best delivery we ever received.

We’ll miss you buddy man, but our love for you will be carried the rest of our lives.

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Kima’s helping me with the third painting started before Korma’s passing. She’s excited about it, as they were frequent collaborators.

YOU GOOD?  

I can see how therapy is helping me out a lot with this grieving process. I’m definitely feeling it, but I’m allowing space for other thoughts and emotions so that I can keep functioning. Making art, tending to the garden, reading books, all of those things are coexisting and sharing my brain.

What else?

The contractual stuff with WWE is progressing. Paperwork is going back and forth as we work our way towards a new deal. Once that’s done everything will be up on WWE Shop. I don’t know how long this process will take, but hopefully pretty quickly. Maybe a week or two. Yo, I’ve got no idea but I know for sure all parties are working on this.

Anything else?

I’ve got some paintings hanging up right now at Art School KC in Lee’s Summit, MO. There’s a Final Friday closing reception on June 30th, but you can see them any time before then during their regular hours. I’ve got my first four Hawaii paintings there as well as the Undertaker and Roman Reigns Wrestling Landscape pieces. They all look pretty snazzy framed up fancy-like. I’ll have more details about this in Tuesday’s newsletter.

That’s about it. I’ve got therapy tomorrow morning so that I can continue to process Korma’s loss and am otherwise going easy on myself during this time. We’re going to wait a couple weeks before we bring a new cat home, to give ourselves a little time before diving into integrating a new critter with Kima. I’ll give you plenty of Important Updates once that time comes over on Instagram, I’m sure.

Love you more,
Rob

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EXCLUSIVE PAID SUBSCRIBER CONTENT

Paid subscribers this week will get an exclusive 25% off discount code for prints and access to the exclusive chat. WE ARE GO FOR PAYWALL.