Los Angeles native Mike Stilkey has always been attracted to painting and drawing not only on vintage paper, record covers and book pages, but on the books themselves. Using a mix of ink, colored pencil, paint and lacquer, Stilkey depicts a melancholic and at times a whimsical cast of characters inhabiting ambiguous spaces and narratives of fantasy and fairy tales. A lingering sense of loss and longing hints at emotional depth and draws the viewer into their introspective thrall with a mixture of capricious poetry, wit, and mystery. (Photo by Mike Stilkey)

Yanna Xian, 24, and her boyfriend Mitch Brown, 27, were swimming while on a boat tour off Honolulu, Hawaii last year, when a curious two-week-old humpback approached them. (Photo by South West News Service)

Hannah Prock, of Austria, prepares to start the luge women's singles run 1 at the 2022 Winter Olympics, Monday, February 7, 2022, in the Yanqing district of Beijing. (Photo by Thomas Peter/Reuters)

Kamila Valieva, of the Russian Olympic Committee, reacts after competing in the women's free skate program during the figure skating competition at the 2022 Winter Olympics, Thursday, February 17, 2022, in Beijing. (Photo by David J. Phillip/AP Photo)

A model displays a creation from fashion brand Dairiku by designer Dairiku Okamoto for the 2022 Autumn/Winter collection at Tokyo Fashion Week in Tokyo on March 19, 2022. (Photo by Philip Fong/AFP Photo)

A plane belonging to U.S. missionary group Agape Flights burns after it was set on fire during protests demanding that the government of Prime Minister Ariel Henry do more to address gang violence including constant kidnappings, in Les Cayes, Haiti on March 29, 2022. (Photo by Duples Plymouth/Reuters)

A Palestinian man reacts as he confronts Israeli forces during a protest against Israeli settlement activity near Hebron in the Israeli-occupied West Bank on June 11, 2022. (Photo by Mussa Qawasma/Reuters)

A woman takes pictures as she stands on the top of a Greek Orthodox Church while the sun sets in the Aegean Sea, in Santorini, Greece's Cyclades island, on Wednesday, June 15, 2022. (Photo by Petros Giannakouris/AP Photo)