Kayla Areglado

Communication Design Student, 2022

Drawing Through the Making Center: Built Metropolis

For this project, we were given the assignment of reinterpreting a building in Greenwich Village that caught our attention in clay. I chose to do the Our Lady of Guadalupe at St. Bernard’s Church in Chelsea because I was attracted to its ornate exterior. Upon doing more research on the place, I found out that it was built at a time when the Hispanic community in New York City was only starting to grow, and was the first church made to cater to that community.

From the very first time this project was introduced, I knew I wanted to do a church out of clay. I wanted to recreate the details on the exterior of the church because I have always appreciated the architecture and design of churches.

 

I started building by creating the overall structure of the church. I unconsciously made the size of the piece quite large, but in the end, I was okay with the size because it didn’t feel right to me to have a small church form. However, this did bring a few issues during the making process because the large pieces were also heavy, and when it was too wet, it would often fall or get deformed.

 

On the first day we worked on this in class, I was able to create the four sides of the church without a roof, but I had to restart after spring break because everything was deformed and hardened. On the second day of working, I was able to restart the structure and complete it with a roof. I went back to work on the project the next day, and was able to complete the whole thing.

 

Throughout the process of making the project, I had to keep simplifying and changing things in order to accommodate the clay itself. At first, I was disappointed in myself because I was really excited for this project and I really wanted to make something nice. But in the end, I was still happy with what I made and told myself that it’s my first time using the material and that I should forgive myself. Overall, I’m glad I got the opportunity to work with clay, even though my project didn’t turn out the way I wanted it to.

 

aregk337 • April 11, 2019


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