Cats gather in front of a house damaged by shelling in the town of Dokuchayevsk, south of Donetsk, February 12, 2015. (Photo by Maxim Shemetov/Reuters)

Children play in front of a brick factory on the outskirts of the northern Myanmar city of Mandalay on December 14, 2015. (Photo by Phyo Hein Kyaw/AFP Photo)

A view shows a church in front of a high-rise apartment building in Saint Petersburg, Russia on October 30, 2019. (Photo by Anton Vaganov/Reuters)

A demonstrator takes part in the Gay Liberation Front (GLF) pride march in London, Britain, June 27, 2020. (Photo by Simon Dawson/Reuters)

A British Airways passenger plane flies in front of the moon above London, Britain, May 3, 2018. (Photo by Toby Melville/Reuters)

A girl plays with pigeons in front of Royal Palace in Phnom Penh, Cambodia on February 24, 2023. (Photo by Tang Chhin Sothy/AFP Photo)

A man enjoys rain showers during high tides near the sea front in Mumbai on July 6, 2023. (Photo by Punit Paranjpe/AFP Photo)

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)