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)

Canadian actress and model Shannon Ashley Garcia “Shay” Mitchell early January 2023 discovers flowers that complement her dress. (Photo by shaymitchell/Instagram)

Canadian actress Nina Kamenova Dobreva, credited professionally as Nina Dobrev puts her long stems on display in the first decade of June 2023. (Photo by nina/Instagram)

“Rudolf Khametovich Nureyev was a Russian Tatar dancer from the former Soviet Union, primarily known for his work in ballet. Nureyev's artistic skills explored expressive areas of the dance, providing a new role to the male ballet dancer who once served only as support to the women. He defected to the West, despite KGB efforts to stop him. According to KGB archives studied by Peter Watson, Nikita Khrushchev personally signed an order to have Nureyev killed”.

Photo: British ballerina Margot Fonteyn (Margaret Hookham) (1919 – 1991) and her professional partner during his tenure with the Royal Ballet Rudolf Nureyev. (Photo by Potter/Express/Getty Images). 12th December 1965. (Photo by Central Press/Getty Images)

“When I was 8 years old, my parents paid a smuggler to take me across the Himalayas, a weekslong walk over the mountains from Tibet to India. It was a trek that tens of thousands of other Tibetans have taken since the Dalai Lama fled a failed 1959 uprising against Chinese rule. My parents must have had their reasons to send me here; they must have had the best of intentions. But 18 years later, I still don't know why they did it. They are not political people. They are small farmers who raise barley and a few yak in a rural area not far from Lhasa, the Tibetan capital. I have not seen them since I left...”. – Tsering Topgyal via The Associated Press. (Photo by Tsering Topgyal/AP Photo)

Londoners sleep on the platform and on the train tracks at Aldwych Underground station,London, during heavy all night Nazi bombing raids, October 8, 1940. (Photo by AP Photo)

British model Jean Shrimpton at London Airport (now Heathrow), 5th June 1967. (Photo by Dove/Express/Getty Images)

A C-17 Globemaster III crew prepares an air refueling mission September 27, 2012, at Joint Base Charleston, S.C. (Photo by Airman 1st Class Matthew J. Bruch/U.S. Air Force photo)