It’s on the
corner of 6th and Mission in San Francisco that Joel Daniel Phillips
meets with the poverty stricken subjects of his ongoing series of finely
detailed drawings, 'No Regrets in Life'. These are the protagonists of hard lives whose stories
emerge in his large-scale, charcoal and graphite drawings on paper. Every line and wrinkle on a face, or fold
and crease of a jacket, tells the story of a life well-worn and the experiences
gained along the way.
The one-to-one
scale of his work allows every tiny detail to be viewed and explored in a way
not usually possible in graphite drawings. This allows us a glimpse behind the
first impression of the sitter and gives an indication as to what makes that
person who they are.
