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)

Family and friends sit in a vehicle trailer, where they will spend the night, near the enclosure for buffalos awaiting sacrifice on the eve of the sacrificial ceremony for the “Gadhimai Mela” festival in Bariyapur November 27, 2014. The festival renowned for its large number of animal sacrifices, is held every five years at the Gadhimai Temple where devotees from Nepal and bordering India will sacrifice buffaloes, goats and birds while offering prayers to Gadhimai, the goddess of power. (Photo by Navesh Chitrakar/Reuters)

Los Angeles city firefighters battle a massive fire at a seven-story downtown apartment complex under construction in Los Angeles, California December 8, 2014. Over 250 firefighters battle the early morning blaze which shutdown two major freeways the Los Angeles Fire Department and California Highway Patrol said. (Photo by Gene Blevins/Reuters)

Gazan artist wears a face mask to raise awareness to the novel coronavirus (Covid-19) spread in Gaza Strip on March 25, 2020. (Photo by Ali Jadallah/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

A worker pushes a wheelbarrow past a mural in Doha on November 8, 2022, ahead of the Qatar 2022 FIFA World Cup football tournament. (Photo by Gabriel Bouys/AFP Photo)

Border Security Force (BSF) personnel patrol along the border fence during a cold foggy morning near India-Pakistan Wagah border about 40km from Amritsar on December 21, 2022. (Photo by Narinder Nanu/AFP Photo)

Dramatic aerial image show a Scots vessel slowly sinking beneath the waves after it hit a “black spot” in the North Sea mid-voyage. Ocean Maid BA55 capsizing amidst the waves after it ran aground off the shore of Fraserburgh, Aberdeenshire, area of Scotland on yesterday morning, October 24, 2022. Fraserburgh Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) rescued the four crew members from the shipwreck at 5:56 am, guiding them into lifeboats as they escaped the keeling ship. (Photo by Deadline News)

Snow surrounds one of the Anthony Gormley statues called Another Place at Crosby Beach Merseyside, United Kingdom on Friday, March 10, 2023. (Photo by Peter Byrne/PA Images via Getty Images)