A few weeks ago, I quietly rolled out a new portfolio page at www.serenae.com/portfolio. It features a sliding content section, bold typography, elegant lightboxed images, and a gallery of my work organized by category, all with the same simple, sleek style as my blog page.

I’m always on the lookout for new adaptations of lesser-known fairy tales, and just over a month ago I was lucky enough to find one practically on my doorstep, at the National Gallery of Art. De Vilde Svaner (The Wild Swans) is one of Hans Christian Andersen’s most beautiful stories, and I had high expectations.

The more I read about this production, an hour-long Danish production with art design created by–no joke–Queen Margrethe II of Denmark, the more apprehensive I became. A film with découpage backdrops and actors greenscreened in? I just wasn’t convinced that they’d be able to pull it off.

And oh boy, was I wrong!

As well as setting a really dangerous precedent of two blog posts in one week, I’m also getting into the bad habit of posting a lot of images and very little text. I’ll try to get better about that, though I secretly believe that people are, in general, too lazy to read lot of text anyway.

As promised, here are my four most recent paintings. They’re actually finished, which is more than I can usually say! We’ll see about continuing this trend.

I’m going to save up for a couple of canvases so next time I don’t have to paint on paper.

I’m still here! Despite my hectic work schedule, I’ve gotten quite a few art projects done over the past month. More on that later. But now, a sneak preview of my next project!

Two years ago, when I was afflicted with horrible sunburn and confined to the house, I started a tradition of decorating notebook covers with strange collages. As I was completely sunburn-free last August, I missed my opportunity. But this year I’ve revived the tradition! Not only that, but I’ve revived it with poetry. This year’s notebook brought to you courtesy of T.S. Eliot and The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock.

Over two years ago (freshman year), I met Brady Earnhart in an intro to creative writing course. The following summer, he graciously consented to be in a short film I made for a new media course with Gardner Campbell. I fell in love with Brady’s music the first time I heard it, and it made up most of the film’s soundtrack. Earlier this year, I made a music video for him. You’d think that I’d eventually get sick of the music after all those hours of editing, but every time I hear a new song of Brady’s, I fall in love all over again.

So I finished writing the short story for my individual study last week, and decided to draw some accompanying illustrations.

I’m not in the habit of writing “this is what’s going on in my life” kind of posts, but this week has big news: I caved and bought an accordion. I’ve been wanting to learn accordion for a while now, but could never find any instruments to try out, let alone buy. I’m discovering all kinds of neat things and challenges. Still very excited.

Welcome to the first installation of Really Cool People Who Aren’t Me. Today’s post features James Kuhn: artist, drag queen, former nudist, born-again Christian, and–most spectacularly–face painting genius. James says, “I love to paint on anything, including flesh!”

I draw on everything. Really, everything. And the drawings are usually bizarre. I’ve scanned a few scraps from notebooks and calendars, just for you. Ready? Be bold, be bold, but not too bold.