Meet Paulina Castro | Architect & illustrator

We had the good fortune of connecting with Paulina Castro and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Paulina, how did you come up with the idea for your business?
Well, I think it’s a bit short story and not impressive at all. During the 2020 pandemic lockdown, I was studying architecture in Guadalajara, and since my family was in Culiacán I had to return for a period of time. By this time I already had experience working as an editorial illustrator for infographics, magazines, and children’s books, but when I entered the architecture career, due to its academic demands, it was something that I gradually put aside.

Even so, I knew that it was a muscle that I did not want to stop exercising, so I tried to do some illustration at least once every six months so as not to leave this area aside. But eventually, I would find myself in this circle that is very common for creatives of feeling that our projects are never finished, because they could always be better, so I would end up never finishing my illustrations.

And so it was, that during the lockdown, I decided that it would be a good disciplinary exercise to create an Instagram account and set rules for myself about the dynamics of my illustration exercise. I only had a week to finish my illustration once I started it and at the same time, I would have to post it publicly. And this helped me to lock myself in certain parameters that forced me to finish my illustration in a defined time. And at the same time, experienced mixing my illustration skills with an architectural approach, which was the career in which I was involved at the time.

And eventually, I began to create a large portfolio of illustrations that already showed a more armed path in this fusion of my two academic careers, in a final result.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
Well I think the challenge has really been that my career has never had a fixed direction. I am a person who is very passionate about new interests constantly. Every once in a while I find a topic that I am passionate about and I like to delve into it, and what is interesting becomes when I can manage to converge on the same result, the different areas on which I have been working.

For three years I have had an architectural illustration project that has led me to give meaning to the visual communication of architecture. I have dedicated a lot of time to illustration as I like to create images that can tell a story of what happens in a context frozen in time. And in my architectural practice, I felt like these visual representations did not fulfill that purpose of really representing the inhabiting of spaces and that is how I have directed my project, always trying to find ways for architectural representations to speak to us about the history and memories that they are being lived in that space.

And for a year and a half, I have been conducting urban and landscape design research. I am very interested in how the relationship between cities and the landscape can greatly affect the city’s social interactions. That is why my research is focused on the adaptive improvement of the banks of the three main rivers that cross the city of Culiacán, Sinaloa, the city where I grew up, since I feel that it has excellent potential to create a focal space for the growth of social activities and environmental regeneration.

And finally, I was able to carry out a convergence on the research that I had developed in the area of ​​landscape helping me with my illustration skills and the result was an exhibition that could reach tangible results on the research, but that could be represented in a very digestible way. and beautiful for the assistants of this.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
I really like Guadalajara, the city where I currently live, because it has a wide range of interesting things to do. I really enjoy living in this city.

I think the things I love to do the most and share with the people I love are going out to eat, hiking, and visiting art galleries. I think that first I would like to go hiking in a quiet place like the Nixticuil forest, go with friends, my partner and my two dogs. See the environment, and nature growing in different seasons and breathe the fresh morning air.

Then we would go to Comala for breakfast, which is a restaurant that has a very good selection of coffee and food, it has incredible chilaquiles and a very relaxing atmosphere. I think that afterward, we can go to visit museums such as the Hospicio Cabañas, MAZ museum, or the Ex Convento del Carmen, which are one of the most consolidated museums in the city with different proposals for art exhibitions or also visit galleries with a new proposal such as Galería Curro or Galería Tiro al Blanco have more contemporary exhibitions.

Finally, at night, I would love to visit Nápoles, an Italian restaurant that has the best selection of pizzas in the city and is definitely my favorite place to share a moment at night with friends and my partner.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
I think that if I stop today to see how I have reached the current moment in my career, it is inevitable to think that I have not gotten this far without all the people who have been there for me all along the way.

Even as part of my creative process, whenever I have been presented with a complex project, I look for people around me who know more about the subject and I approach them for guidance. I could not assume that I am an expert in all the issues that surround my work, and it has always been a great help to have friendly hands that have offered to be part of my processes.

And mainly, my close circles of family and friends have contributed a lot to the person I am today and have helped me make difficult decisions when I have needed them, which have directed me on the right path.

So I think it’s impossible to create a well-directed path, without the accompaniment of a close community that supports you.

Website: https://www.behance.net/pcastrov

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/eena.ilustracion/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/pcastrov/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/eena_ilustra

Image Credits
María Laura Castro