Estella Fansbergen, born in South Africa, has been educated in the Netherlands, South Africa, Italy and America.  She has exhibited her work in numerous galleries and museums.  The Daytona Museum of Art has a Fransbergen piece in their permanent collection.

         Estella rapidly grew from functional pottery to the sculpture she is known for today.  Nature is her greatest inspiration.  “We are so far removed from nature that we are broken…not whole anymore.  To become whole again, you must listen to your inner self and return to Nature.”  Estella is drawn to the female form and the ancient art of raku, where her work is born form the earth, the wood and the fire.  She truncates her sculpture at the shoulders because…”the torso is the soul.” 

Her sculptures of the female form are both iconic and fanciful.  Estella works in both clay and bronze, using traditional patinations and precious and semi-precious stones…uniquely blending the traditional components to create a very contemporary result.