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)

In this Wednesday, September 17, 2014 photo, the sun shines over a field of sunflowers in Walkill, N.Y. (Photo by John DeSanto/AP Photo/Times Herlad-Record)

A woman washes clothes at a shelter for families displaced by gang violence at the Saint Yves Church in Port-au-Prince, Haiti on July 26, 2021. (Photo by Ricardo Arduengo/Reuters)

The Pumawari Tusuy group performs for the crowd gathered in the park at the first Annual Indigenous Peoples' Day Ceremonial Celebration in Newton, Massachusetts on October 11, 2021. October 11 is a federal holiday to mark Columbus Day, but the day was also officially recognized as Indigenous Peoples' Day following a proclamation by US President Joe Biden. (Photo by Joseph Prezioso/AFP Photo)

American pop star Nicole Scherzinger, 43, of NBC's Annie Live! and FOX's The Masked Singer visits The Empire State Building on November 12, 2021 in New York City. (Photo by Roy Rochlin/Getty Images for Empire State Realty Trust)

A white-throated kingfisher (Halcyon smyrnensis) sits over a tree in a field in Lahore, Pakistan, 26 March 2021. The most familiar Kingfisher species can be observed perched on branches or walls while on the lookout for grubs, insects and even fish in streams or garden ponds. (Photo by Rahat Dar/EPA/EFE)

People attend New York's Annual Village Halloween Parade dressed as soldiers from the United Nations in Manhattan, New York City, U.S., October 31, 2022. (Photo by Andrew Kelly/Reuters)

A worker paints the face of a realistic pet plushie, at the Pampanga Teddy Bear Factory, in Angeles City, Pampanga province, Philippines on March 10, 2023. (Photo by Lisa Marie David/Reuters)