About me
Cristina Otero Sabio, Akris
January 1992, Granada
Marine biologist, activist and artist
From a very young age I felt a deep devotion to the ocean. I dreamed of exploring it and studying cetaceans, and I was certain that my path would be marine biology.
While that dream was on its way, I spent hours drawing, mostly seascapes and orcas, my first great love. At school they knew me as the girl who painted whales. The sea was far from home, and painting was my way of getting closer to it and, in part, of projecting my future. Back then I could never have imagined that one day I would do both things professionally.
In my teens I discovered photography and digital editing, and painting took a back seat for a long time. I used a reflex camera for the first time at 16, and I remember staying up all night learning to edit with the few resources available back then. That is when my pseudonym, Akris, was born. I started sharing my photos on blogs and doing some work as a photographer. I had found a passion that, to this day, is still one of my greatest. I began with artistic photography and portraits and, over the years, I have been lucky enough to document many trips around the world and to photograph incredible animals.
“The girl who drew whales”
My career as a scientist has taken me to live and work in several places and countries, and to fulfil that childhood dream: working with cetaceans. Since finishing my Biology degree I have been lucky enough to work with these animals in several places and to take part in research campaigns sailing different seas. My first job was in the Strait of Gibraltar, where I got to know the cetaceans that live in its waters and the Iberian orcas, with whom I did my first photo-identification studies in 2014. That is how I took my first steps in research. I decided to keep moving forward and left the Strait, but I always knew I would return.
Later I did a PhD in cell biology and cetacean ecotoxicology in Italy, a country I consider my second home since my Erasmus year. After several years I returned to Tarifa, where it all began, and where I now live and work on the conservation of the Iberian orca with the WeWhale Association and Iberian Orca Guardians. I am also president of the environmental association Nereide, through which we carry out a great deal of environmental education work.
All this time I never stopped drawing. It was during the pandemic that I defined my style and created my largest collection of work. Thanks to that, today I have the freedom to choose where to work and to dedicate myself to conservation, because every original, print or course supports my path in it.
Akris’World is the place where all of this comes together: watercolour, photography and my love for the sea.
From my imagination to the page. Tempera on paper, 2001 (age 9)
You can follow my two paths on Instagram: @akris.painting and @akris.world