for the Eleventh Hour was a continuation of Swartz's work with the earth and its spiritual significance and connection to humankind. In Swartz's previous series, The Wounded Healer, from 1991, she referred to the inborn hurt and renewal of the shaman. The title of the series derives from the wounded healer concept described in Jean Houston's book The Search for the Beloved. A Story for the Eleventh Hour is a series of fifteen paintings based on a myth in which Earth and humanity, being on the brink of extinction, are eventually saved through human enlightenment. Swartz visualized a symbolic mantra, that is, a figurative group of archetypal images that invite viewers to look into themselves and find their way. Each painting in the series includes a triune eye (I – Eye – Aye) as well as a rhyming counterpoint to this image, “Die”: the "I" of ego, the "eye" of seeing, the "aye" of affirmation, and the "dying" that occurs with the giving up of ego. Swartz fashions a journey from the smaller story (the "I" of ego) into the larger story (the "aye" of affirmation), a journey that asks for a giving up of self in exchange for a belief in others, both as individual beings and, collectively, as humankind. Ideas from Rupert Sheldrake, Alice Bailey, Jean Houston, T. S. Eliot, Christianity, Hinduism, and Buddhism permeate this series. Shen Qi, 1996-1999 In 1996, Swartz discovered Shen Qi, a philosophical system that advances the belief in spiritual bonding through community. She produced a series of paintings based on Shen Qi using gold leaf to superimpose a gold grid onto under-images as a meditative technique. Swartz wished to entice a “quite tranquility” in the viewer. The paintings, composed of acrylic, gold leaf, and mixed media on canvas, have a powerful, emanating energy, as patterns of reds, blues, and violets are interrupted and transformed by patches of celestial gold. Some of the paintings contain all three colors while others are predominantly dark red or blue, which creates a stark contrast with the vibrant gold leaf. 2000s The Thirteenth Moon, 2006-2008 The Thirteenth Moon series of paintings was inspired by the poetry of the eighth century Chinese poets Du Fu and Li Bai. In pairing poetry with paintings, Swartz sought to heighten the meaning of each one through the marriage of the visual and the written word, which emanates spiritual awareness and emotional