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)

Giant panda Ying Ying rests on a rock in its enclosure while a visitor takes a selfie at Ocean Park in Hong Kong, China, 24 September 2020. An An turned 35 in August. Giant pandas in the wild can live up to 20 years on average, while lifespans of those under human care can reach over 30 years. (Photo by Jerome Favre/EPA/EFE)

A vendor sells fish at Central Market in freezing conditions of minus 43 degrees Celsius in the city of Yakutsk, Sakha (Yakutia), Russia on December 13, 2020. The winters in Yakutsk are extremely cold and long and the summers short and warm, with temperatures sometimes rising above 30C. (Photo by Yevgeny Sofroneyev/TASS)

A team of female cadets takes part in a tug-of-war competition at Budyonny Military Academy of the Signal Corps in St Petersburg, Russia on March 7, 2021. (Photo by Peter Kovalev/TASS/Profimedia)

Two journalists stand on the back of a horse-shaped statue on display to promote the art performance titled “Yu Ma” presented by Taiwan’s Paper Windmills Theater, during a photo call outside the Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall in Taipei on March 24, 2021. (Photo by Sam Yeh/AFP Photo)

Leon Feingold, right, drops his jeans as his girlfriend Patrizia Calvio looks in her purse on the uptown E Train during the 18th annual No Pants Subway Ride, January 13, 2019, in New York. (Photo by Kathy Willens/AP Photo)

A woman plays billiards during a local championship at a sports hall in Yemen's capital Sanaa on December 16, 2019. (Photo by Mohammed Huwais/AFP Photo)

(L-R) Alesha Dixon and Amanda Holden attend the Britain's Got Talent 2020 photocall at London Palladium on January 19, 2020 in London, England. (Photo by Doug Peters/EMPICS)