In the creation and the naming of her pieces, she frequently includes influences from the opera and ballet.

With Wagner, Tchaikovsky or others swelling through a discreet iPod pinned to her painter’s smock, romantic conundrums of lovers who cannot marry but love for life take form in a pair of geese. Says Swearingen: “They mate for life, you know.”

Her work called Swan Lake is a painting of a single swan walking along the frothy seashore.

“In Swan Lake, you have both Odette and Odile—the white swan and the black swan—even though in this case it’s the shadow. But then, what’s the black swan but the shadow? I like things like that.”

Swearingen described the influence on her for a recent show of animals.

“I feel that this show is a little bit like The 500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins, a Dr. Seuss story where the king has a challenge.”

In the children’s story, the king’s hats change every day, getting more complex and more difficult to stop until Bartholomew saves the day.

“It’s a little bit about the artistic process. You may try to do things the same way, but it’s a spiral. It is always different, ever changing, and ever growing.

“It’s like a chambered nautilus; you keep spiraling into different things,” Swearingen said, turning to her own artistic journey. “I like to think I get better and better. It’s a real voyage of discovery and a voyage of commitment and it took me years to own my own self.”

A firm foundation of faith also guides Swearingen’s work, and often hymns fly through her mind or iPod as she paints.

“I think my art work is about rejoicing,” said Swearingen. “It’s about expressing some of the delight that I have in God’s creation and hoping to illuminate that so somebody else might see it.”

“I think God is an artist. He rejoices in his creation. You can’t drive across the city without seeing beauty. I think as a artist, for me, my raison d’etre is to help people see how beautiful it all is and be grateful.”

[Nancy Swearingen work can also be viewed HERE.]