I make naive and silly characters to make you smile and to transmit my love for science and nature,” says Marina Sabio, a sculptor, and illustrator born in France but currently based in Barcelona, Spain.
The artist studied cinema at the FCC Blanquerna and specialized in cinema direction and script writing. Her cinema studies made Marina lean toward stop-motion animation and finally, towards character design. “All my works are handmade in my Barcelona studio, where I also proudly run my own online shop and business,” she says.
Marina spends her days creating and looking down at tiny things on her desk. In her spare time, she likes to compensate by looking up at the vastness of the universe. She is an amateur astronomer and likes to read science books whenever she gets the chance.
Polymer clay is the first medium Marina tried and the one that got her into sculpting. “When I was little I loved modeling and making characters with plasticine,” she says, “so later on, as an adult, I tried to find a material that would look a lot like plasticine but that would cure and that I would be able to sand and paint. Polymer clay was perfect for this and I still enjoy working with it every day - I guess it keeps my inner child happy, who feels like she is still playing with plasticine.”
Nature is undoubtedly Marina’s biggest inspiration, as it is for many artists. She is a lover of the natural world and she is constantly trying to portray it with her art. Her favorite things to sculpt are nature and science-related things such as planets, animals, space probes, hominid skulls, etc.
“Details used to be very important when I started sculpting,” says the artist. “However, the more I sculpt, paint, and work on this medium, the more I realize it is by simplifying that I achieve my favorite results.”
“I think you must first get lost in making details to realize
what is essential, and finally, stick with that.”
Marina's workshop is in a little room in her apartment. It has a lot of natural light and it is quite cozy, although she keeps dreaming of a bigger studio, in a wooden house, in the middle of nowhere, and in the woods. Considering her plans for the future, the artist mentions that this year she would like to develop her illustrations, try other mediums such as paper-mâché and felted wood, and keep making her own sculptures. Sounds like a wonderful plan!
