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)

“Jimi Hendrix made it shriek. Buddy Holly made it swing. Stevie Ray Vaughn made it snarl. Some of the most legendary guitarists in music history have elicited unforgettable sounds from the Fender Stratocaster, the distinctive double-cutaway guitar born in a small Fullerton, Calif., workshop 60 years ago this month”. – Associated Press. Photo: A finished Fender Stratocaster is adjusted by Kenneth Maas in the Fender Custom Shop in Corona, Calif. on Tuesday, October 15, 2013. Leo Fender developed the instrument in a small workshop in Fullerton, Calif. six decades ago. (Photo by Matt York/AP Photo)

Ice Age – Tibet, China. “This is the Chinese version of the blue ice lake, Pumoungcuo, at an altitude of 5,070 metres (16,600 feet). This lake in Tibet freezes every winter. At night, under the low temperatures of -20C, you can listen to the sound of the ice cracking while capturing the most beautiful winter sky. The blue ice surface and dazzling Orion constellation create a fantasy landscape. I felt so happy to have the stars as my companion on this magical night”. (Photo by Daniel Zafra Portill/Milky Way Photographer of the Year)

Two visitors take pictures of autumn leaves at Rikugien Garden Tuesday, December 10, 2019, in the Bunkyo district of Tokyo. (Photo by Jae C. Hong/AP Photo)

Winner of the National Park Foundation's photo contest; Honorable Mention: Fan Favorite. Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona. Three friends enjoy sunrise over the Grand Canyon. (Photo by Peter Blanchard)

A young festivalgoer jumps to burst a bubble at Latitude Festival at Henham Park, Britain, July 22, 2021. (Photo by Peter Cziborra/Reuters)

Isabella Busse, 6, walks through floodwater near the Seal Beach Pier during a storm in Seal Beach, Calif., Sunday, January 22, 2017. The heavy downpour on Sunday drenched Orange County in one of the heaviest storms of the year. Fast-moving floodwaters swept through California mountain communities and residents fled homes below hillsides scarred by wildfires as the third in the latest series of storms brought a deluge Sunday and warnings about damaging mudslides. (Photo by Ana Venegas/The Orange County Register via AP Photo)

A girl jumps from a tomb, a day before the nationwide cemetery closure during All Saints' Day amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), at a flooded cemetery in Masantol, Pampanga, Philippines, October 28, 2021. (Photo by Lisa Marie David/Reuters)