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)

A violent eruption spews ash more than a kilometer into the sky above Mount Etna in Sicily on February 23, 2021. (Photo by Marco Restivo/Barcroft Studios via Getty Images)

A participant takes part in a high heel race to protest in favor of gender equality in Monterrey, Mexico on May 12, 2019. (Photo by Daniel Becerril/Reuters)

A view of Worker and Kolkhoz Woman, a sculpture by Vera Mukhina, at the main entrance to Moscow's VDNKh exhibition center in Moscow, Russia on September 27, 2017. (Photo by Dmitry Serebryakov/TASS/Barcroft Images)

An airplane house is pictured in the village of Miziara, northern Lebanon May 12, 2015. Miziara prides itself on building residential homes that resemble ancient Greek temples and Egyptian ruins, one is even built in the shape of an Airbus A380. (Photo by Aziz Taher/Reuters)

Lava cascades down the slopes of Mayon volcano as seen from Legazpi city, Albay province, around 340 kilometers (210 miles) southeast of Manila, Philippines, Monday, January 15, 2018. More than 9,000 people have evacuated the area around the Philippines' most active volcano as lava flowed down its crater Monday in a gentle eruption that scientists warned could turn explosive. (Photo by Earl Recamunda/AP Photo)

Crashed cars in Finchley Road, north London. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images). May 1924

A rabbit fails to clear an obstacle during a bunny hop competition at the Old Town Square in Prague, Czech Republic, Monday, April 14, 2014. (Photo by Petr David Josek/AP Photo)