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 tomtit bird flies past a squirrel running on a fence after a snowfall in a park in Almaty, Kazakhstan, January 12, 2016. (Photo by Shamil Zhumatov/Reuters)

A visitor takes a selfie with “The Breach” by Leandro Erlich, during a photo call for Kew Gardens' forthcoming “Food Forever” exhibition, examining the fragile future of food and the impact of our day-to-day eating habits on the planet, at the Royal Botanic Gardens, in Kew, Richmond, Surrey on Thursday, June 16, 2022. (Photo by Dominic Lipinski/PA Images via Getty Images)

A man watches a wave hit a rock pool at Curl Curl beach as large swell hits the East Coast of Australia on June 6, 2016 in Sydney, Australia. Torrential rain over the weekend saw streets and homes flooded while wind gusts up to 120km per hour brought down trees and powerlines. A king tide has also seen beachside homes evacuated on Sydney's northern beaches as large waves erode the coast. (Photo by Cameron Spencer/Getty Images)

Iraqi Kurds carry fire torches as they celebrate Nowruz Day, a festival marking the first day of spring, Kurdish and Persian New Year in Akre, Iraq on March 20, 2024. Newroz or Nowruz means “new day” in Persian, and is celebrated to mark the arrival of spring and the first day of the Iranian calendar. It is widely celebrated in Persian and neighboring regions and is recognized on UNESCO's Intangible Cultural Heritage of Human List. (Photo by Ismael Adnan/SOPA Images/Rex Features/Shutterstock)

An offering of a dried baby llama and fake U.S. burn in honor of Pachamama, or Mother Earth, during a New Year ritual on Turriturrini Mountain on the outskirts of Huarina, Bolivia, Friday, June 21, 2024. Aymara Indigenous communities are celebrating the Andean New Year 5,532 or “Willka Kuti” which translates to “Return of the sun” in Aymara. (Photo by Juan Karita/AP Photo)

Aerial photo shows a colorful metasequoia forest at Hongze Lake wetland scenic spot in Suqian, East China's Jiangsu province, November 3, 2024. (Photo by CFOTO/Future Publishing via Getty Images)

This July 2014 image provided by the Bureau of Land Management shows the interior of the Natural Trap Cave in north-central Wyoming. The cave holds the remains of tens of thousands of animals, including many now-extinct species, from the late Pleistocene period tens of thousands of years ago. Scientists have resumed digging for the first time in more than 30 years. (Photo by AP Photo/Bureau of Land Management)