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)

Luna the French Bulldog is dressed in red, white, and blue during the National Independence Day Parade in Washington, DC, on July 4, 2023. (Photo by Stefani Reynolds/AFP Photo)

Two demonstrators hurl stones at Soviet tanks on Leipziger Platz in East Berlin, Germany on June 17, 1953. Germany's parliament on Friday, June 16, 2023, commemorated the 70th anniversary of a popular uprising in the communist east that was brutally crushed by the Soviet-backed dictatorship.(Photo by AP Photo, File)

A model takes a selfie during rehearsal for the Moe Ho collection by designer Mengmeng He, during China Fashion Week in Beijing, March 29, 202. (Photo by Ng Han Guan/AP Photo)

This jaw-dropping footage shows one brave diver getting up close and personal with a group of sharks as he feeds them a long-awaited meal. Ken Kiefer from Houston, Texas captured his friend, Jake, reaching right into the mouth of a hammerhead. (Photo by Ken Kiefer/Caters News Agency)

A view of children mannequins wrapped in purple and white barricade tape placed in front of the Cologne Cathedral, installed there by German artist Dennis Josef Meseg, called “Shattered Souls – in a Sea of Silence”, to protest against the abuse scandals in the Catholic Church in Cologne, Germany on August 3, 2023. (Photo by Wolfgang Rattay/Reuters)

A 16-foot- ( almost 5 meters ) tall hand sculpture named Quasi stands perched on its fingertips atop the roof of an art gallery in Wellington, New Zealand, Wednesday, October 30, 2024. (Photo by Charlotte Graham-McLay/AP Photo)

Kim Goodman, from Chicago, Illinois, US, holds the record for the farthest eyeball protrusion, at 12mm. (Photo by Paul Michael Hughes/Guinness World Records/PA Wire Press Association)