The Beast of Hunt

Artist

Nelcy Patricia Pina

Artist bio

Visual Artist and Poet Pat has more than 40 years of experience in painting. She has felt a connection to art as long as she can remember. Growing up in Venezuela, she took private lessons with local artist Adalberto Carrizo, learning oil painting techniques, followed by sculpting classes with Francisco Fajardo in the School of Art Neptali Rincon, and with the colorist Luis Cuevas, all local artists in Maracaibo Venezuela. She began writing poetry in her twenties, publishing a book of poetry called Ella in 2007. Beginning in 2012, she spent five years participating in a collective art exhibition called SUBASTARTE to raise funds for the Pediatric Specialties Hospital (HEP in Spanish) located in Maracaibo, Venezuela. Since moving to the United States, Pat has continued to create art. She was invited to assist on a mural at St. Thomas the Apostle Episcopal Church in Nassau Bay and was invited as one of four artists to each paint one of the four seasons in the church calendar. For this project, she created two forty by forty inch abstract geometric acrylic paintings to represent Advent. Additionally, Pat has 20 years experience as a professor at the University of Zulia, where she taught Geographic Information Systems, logic and deduction, numeric methods, and different programming languages. She has high proficiency in understanding and following procedures and regulations. She has extensive experience working with young people. She provides great customer service and has superb communication and negotiation skills. She is energized by colorful brush strokes, textures and shapes, which she believes stimulate feelings, memories and meaning that go beyond language.

Visual Arts 2026 Contest

Title

Medium/Genre

Painting

Artist Statement

This artwork explores the present moment as a state of conscious pause, where awareness emerges through stillness rather than action. The wolf is depicted in a condition of equilibrium—neither defensive nor aggressive—meeting the viewer with a direct gaze that dissolves the distance between spectator and artwork. It neither judges nor withdraws, but seems to ask: “I see you… do you see yourself?” In this way, the frontal gaze becomes an interior confrontation and an invitation to self-recognition.

The wolf, understood here as a symbolic embodiment of instinct, intuition, and survival, draws inspiration from Isaiah 11:6, reinterpreted through a contemporary lens. In a world marked by polarization, violence, and fear, the figure of the wolf becomes a metaphor for the human capacity to inhabit power without destruction. The peace evoked is not a gesture of weakness, but one of maturity: not the denial of instinct, but its conscious integration.

Fire surrounds the figure as a representation of wild, instinctual energy—present, contained, and transformed rather than chaotic. The composition is framed by the Lupus constellation, where Alpha Lupi, its brightest star, emerges as a metaphor for inner light and guiding awareness. Together, these elements articulate a vision of harmony in which strength and restraint coexist, allowing instinct and consciousness, light and shadow, to be integrated into a coherent and peaceful way of being in the present—where the inner child, as a symbol of innocence and clarity, ultimately leads them.

How it fits into contest

Isaiah 11:6
The wolf will live in peace with the lamb, and the leopard will ·lie down to rest with the young goat. Calves, lions, and ·young bulls will ·eat together, and a little child will lead them.

Message for the Present

This artwork engages with Isaiah 11:6 from a contemporary perspective.
In a world shaped by polarization, violence, and fear, the wolf becomes a symbol of the human being who learns to live with their own power without destroying others.

The peace envisioned in Isaiah 11:6 — and interpreted in this work — is not weakness; it is maturity.
It is not the denial of instinct, but its conscious integration.

True harmony does not emerge when strength disappears, but when it is understood, restrained, and transformed into coexistence.