Hi. My name's Rob Schamberger. I'm that guy who paints rasslers. And other stuff. That’s just an alibi.
WHAT’S NEW?
It was a week about making art for myself. I’ve worked ahead on my WWE obligations and found myself with a little time. Instead of caving to the obsessive part of my personality, I instead slowed down and just made art for the audience of me, myself and I. And my audience score is 100% on the Tomatometer. Ten out of Ten, no notes.
By the nature of things, I’m often only concerned with the business side of art. It’s been very nice to instead just enjoy making art. Pretty cool.
The above piece was a warmup 9 x 12 watercolor of my model Jenny from our shoot with my friend and photographer Paul Andrews for my new Emotion Series painting. More on that later.
Here’s a progress shot to whet your appetite for next week’s Randy Orton painting. Don’t worry, I still make the paintin’s of the rasslers.
UPCOMING WWE PAINTINGS
Randy Orton
Iyo Sky
Waiting to see what and/or who comes out of the Royal Rumble next week!
Card subject to change.
THE EMOTION SERIES
“Confident”
Acrylic on 20” x 30” board
The latest painting in my collection of works exploring how I experience emotions as a person with PTSD and Reactive Attachment Disorder. My hope is that these paintings will bring awareness, understanding and research to RAD.
There’s deep meaning to each of these, but I’m leaving it up to the viewer to decide for themselves what they mean and how they make them feel, with the intention of creating empathy through experiencing them.
Hundreds of prints and paintings at Schamberger Labs!
Rob and Jason Arnett's novella Rudow Can't Fail!
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Rob’s prints on WWE Shop!
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Instagram
YouTube
WHAT I LIKED THIS WEEK
Leave the World Behind lived up to my high expectations and continued my tradition of enjoying everything Ethan Hawke is in. It’s a very personal character-driven story about the ‘collapse of American society’ type of story that’s fairly prominent right now, this time with a very acerbic tone to it. A family (with parents Ethan Hawke and Julia Roberts) gets away from life in New York for a weekend at a very fancy AirBnB right when the collapse happens, leading homeowner Mahershala Ali to come home as well. A lot of questions are asked, some are answered, but all of it centers around the characters and how they react to this oncoming new world order.
Katy and I watched May December Thursday night. It’s a super challenging story about Natalie Portman’s character, an actress, who spends a week with the real-life subject (played by the incomparable Julianne Moore) of her upcoming movie. And here’s where it gets challenging: Moore’s character was an adult woman who entered a relationship with a 13 year old boy. Now out of prison, the two are still together with turning-adult children. Portman’s character, through observing them and asking questions, brings their past back to light in many uncomfortable ways and continually asks the question of who the villain of this story is. The viewer is left with the responsibility of answering that question.
Fargo Season Five is perfect. A high point of creativity. I’ve been saying this all along and good golly did they deliver on the finale. Unbeliaveably great.
After enjoying the Wheel of Time show I started listening to the audiobooks and just finished the second in the series, The Great Hunt by Robert Jordan. The first book was..you know, it was okay. But it seems like Jordan really started finding his way into this story and its characters here. I’m definitely sticking with it.
Where the Body Was by Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips is the latest collaboration from my personal favorite creative duo. It’s a crime romance story about a small neighborhood in the early 80’s and its many secrets. I don’t want to say too much more about it because its twists and turns are a fun experience and I really think you should check it out.
Ms Tree: Heroine Withdrawal by Max Allan Collins and Terry Beatty is the latest collection of the classic 80’s comic series. Some parts of it are definitely, ah, of its time, but it’s all wonderfully done. I’m of the mind that Ms Tree is one of the really great 80’s genre comics along with Watchmen, Dark Knight Returns, American Flagg! and the Wolfman/ Perez Teen Titans but because it was unavailable for so long it’s largely been forgotten. But man, Beatty drew the hell out of this book and they really didn’t shy away from some complicated topics for the character to exist within.
Even more art! Did you know that I paint stuff?
YOU GOOD?
I also went to a couple figure drawing sessions, one on Tuesday night and the other Friday morning. The above two were from Tueday’s session with our model Doug. Figure drawing (or painting in my case) has become one of my very favorite things that I do because it’s solely about creativity and challenging myself. Some turn out pretty good, others stink up the joint, but I’m learning and growing every time while flexing very different artistic muscles from my studio work.
I feel like doing this regularly over the past couple years has greatly contributed to the dramatic increase in the quality of said studio work. Both from the challenge and from getting out of the house and hanging out with fellow artists, all of us doing our thing. It’s only a good thing to see how different people approach the same subject because there’s so much to learn.
Thank you again for supporting my work because it gives me weeks like this one where I can really enjoy myself doing what I love to do. I appreciate you.
Love you more,
Rob
EXCLUSIVE PAID SUBSCRIBER CONTENT
Paid subscribers this week will get an exclusive 25% off discount code to Schamberger Labs. Also lots of information about upcoming signed prints on WWE Shop. WE ARE GO FOR PAYWALL.
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