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)

Karis, an 8 week old lion cub, growls at a pumpkin as she explores a Halloween treat put in her enclosure by staff at Blair Drummond Safari Park near Stirling, Scotland, Tuesday, October 29, 2013. (Photo by Andrew Milligan/AP Photo/PA Wire)

Kashmiri woman takes part in a physical test of a recruitment rally for the Special Police Officers (SPO) in Jammu and Kashmir Police, in Srinagar on December 6, 2019. As many as 23,000 people have applied for posts in the Special Police Officers (SPO) in Jammu and Kashmir Police and 100 positions will filled in the current phase of recruitment, local authorities said. (Photo by Tauseef Mustafa/AFP Photo)

A worker disinfects a mosque for coronavirus, in Peshawar, Pakistan, Thursday, April 2, 2020. The government imposed a nationwide lockdown to try to contain the outbreak of the virus. (Photo by Muhammad Sajjad/AP Photo)

The Frecce Tricolori perform over a deserted Via del Corso on Liberation Day following the outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Rome, Italy, April 25, 2020. (Photo by Remo Casilli/Reuters)

Giant panda Ying Ying rests on a rock in its enclosure while a visitor takes a selfie at Ocean Park in Hong Kong, China, 24 September 2020. An An turned 35 in August. Giant pandas in the wild can live up to 20 years on average, while lifespans of those under human care can reach over 30 years. (Photo by Jerome Favre/EPA/EFE)

Russian President Vladimir Putin aims a sniper rifle during a visit to the Patriot military exhibition center outside Moscow, Russia, Wednesday, September 19, 2018. Putin chaired a meeting that focused on new arms programs. (Photo by Alexei Nikolsky/Sputnik/Kremlin Pool Photo via AP Photo)

Portugal's Patricia Mamona competes in the women's triple jump final during the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games at the Olympic Stadium in Tokyo on August 1, 2021. (Photo by Dylan Martinez/Reuters)