About Uniqueness and a Contribution

A recent article I read asked this question: What is the contribution of my art? The article also asked what makes my art unique. Well, what does make my current art, Still Life in the Bar, unique and a contribution to Art? It is a fair question.
I have to say at the beginning of this discussion that I don’t think of myself as a bar fly. I smile. I have too much to do and am too driven to get on with it to spend much time in a bar. I go in to have a glass of wine or a beer when I get a chance, often to meet or to be with friends. I suspect that most people go to have a drink with friends, to kick back and relax. The history of having a glass of wine with friends is very old as most know. So, why is there so little art devoted to life in the bar, especially still life? I have done Google searches to see what I could find and found very little. Now, maybe I just haven’t put in the right words in the search, but still… So, I think I am adding to a very under represented art sector of American life. After all, I think that bartenders work hard to keep their bar looking just so and the uniqueness of each bar is something that I try to capture.
Take a couple of recent favorites for example. First, I wish to take note of Parson’s Pub, a new establishment in a little town in North Carolina. It is new to the town and offers an exemplary selection of brews as well as some nice Irish food. But from my point of view, this bar has something to offer in the way of color, especially with regard to the beer taps usually, and taps do have their own distinctive color. Parson’s Pub offers a very nice collection of colorful beer taps to set off the glass of beer. So there is reason to re-visit the pub and not just for the taste of an exotic brew. I will have to visit them again soon.
Another example is Mainstreet Pub, an establishment that is a recent addition to my favorites list. The painting of that bar is a work in process, but I mention it because the bowl of fruit on the bar is the center of the composition. It is not there just for looks. The fruit is sitting next to the juicer. And they make some kick-butt good cocktails using the fresh fruit from that bowl. There is, of course, much more to the place than just the bowl of fruit. Mainstreet Pub has enough flavor for the artist to absorb to create a dozen paintings, perhaps even something of a career. However that potential may be, one painting is a start.
I have already completed more than a dozen paintings of bar scenes. There are 6 or 7 sketchbooks full of drawings done in various establishments. So…a bit about the art of the art is in order. I haven’t counted them, but most of the older sketches have been of people. Those sketches are primarily of interest to my friends and myself. I wanted to seek something that could be of interest to a wider audience. I want to find the uniqueness of an establishment and incorporate it into the work. I do the initial sketch(s) in ink in my sketchbook at the bar. The compositions have evolved as I have developed the series. (I hope to complete paintings from over 100 bars in this series.) The paintings, currently, are mixed media that include, but are not limited to pen (both black and color) pencil, pastel, and acrylic paint. To this point, all work has been done on paper. The work is by its very nature autobiographical. So, welcome to my life. Join me in the joy of this form of art as the series and I progress.