"La Serena" - Ceramic Bust Sculpture

La Serena is a hand-built ceramic bust sculpture by Vanessa Estes Quintero, a locally based Mexican artist whose work draws from shamanic traditions, feminine mysticism, and ancestral totem forms.

The sculpture presents a stylized female head and elongated neck with a steady, self-possessed expression. Her features convey calm resolve rather than softness — a quiet confidence rooted in balance and inner clarity. In Spanish, serena refers not simply to gentleness, but to a composed state of being: centered, grounded, and fully assured. This sense of serenity is embodied in the figure’s gaze and posture, which feel deliberate and unwavering.

The surface is richly textured and intentionally irregular, finished in layered chalky whites with pale green and earthen undertones. The weathered ceramic skin suggests time, endurance, and lived experience, creating a subtle contrast between the raw materiality of the form and the quiet certainty of the expression. The result is a figure that feels both ancient and present — less a portrait than a vessel of accumulated knowing.

Totemic in nature, La Serena functions as a contemplative object and grounding presence within a space. It speaks to feminine strength that does not assert itself outwardly, but exists in equilibrium, self-trust, and stillness held with intention.