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 truffle is seen on a table in Alba, north-western Italy November 11, 2013. Located in the heart of the Langhe – the hilly southern area of Italy's northwestern Piedmont region – Alba is the country's capital of white truffles, a variety of the prized fungus which grows underground. Truffles are found two to eight inches (5-20cm) below the ground near the roots of trees. They give off an odour which lasts for a limited period of time and can be detected with the assistance of well-trained dogs and experienced hunters. Output of white truffles, which are not cultivated and only grow naturally in forests, has fallen in Italy over the past few years, largely because climate change has brought a damaging mix of drought and torrential rains. (Photo by Stefano Rellandini/Reuters)

The 20-year-old American fashion model Kaia Jordan Gerber – who is the daughter of supermodel Cindy Crawford, 55, and businessman Rande Gerber, 59 – poses braless as she stuns in an edgy shoot in January 2022. (Photo by Ports 1961’s Spring/Summer Campaign)

Focus on two glasses of champagne on floor. Ardent loving couple is sitting on bed and hugging with passion on background. Romantic date concept. (Photo by Olena Yakobchuk/Rex Features/Shutterstock)

Mexican clown Gabriela Munoz, whose clown name is Chula the Clown, looks at herself in the mirror after putting on her make up during an interview in Mexico City, Friday, August 26, 2022. (Photo by Berenice Bautista/AP Photo)

A lizard is seen hunting for fish during the daytime on May 04, 2017 in West Sumatra, Indonesia. (Photo by Riau Images/Barcroft Images)

A couple shelter under an umbrella during a heavy downpour of rain in Belfast, Ireland on Monday, July 31, 2023. (Photo by Liam McBurney/PA Images via Getty Images)

Chieftain Japarupi Waiapi shows a roasted monkey -part of Waiapi's diet, also based in Manioc and fruits- at the reserve in Amapa state in Brazil on October 13, 2017. When Waiapis walks into the Amazon forest surrounding their village, they do not see trees, but a kind of shopping mall providing medicine, food, shelter, tools and weapons all under the eye of multiple spirits. (Photo by Apu Gomes/AFP Photo)