Two sheep fight in a competition in Zhangjiakou, Hebei province, China on August 1, 2017. (Photo by Reuters/China Stringer Network)

Actors, clowns and mime artists celebrate “Humor Day” in St Petersburg on April 1, 2022. April 1 is also referred to as “April Fool’s Day” and is a time for playing pranks in the country. (Photo by Anatoly Maltsev/European Press Photo Agency)

Cadets of the Sikh Regimental Center perform Gatka martial stunts during a combined display ahead of a graduation ceremony at the Officers Training Academy, in Chennai on October 28, 2022. (Photo by Arun Sankar/AFP Photo)

A man walks near a artwork of Italian artist Dario Agrimi entitled “ascesa” during a press preview of the first edition of “Roma Arte in Nuvola”, the international fair of modern and contemporary art in Rome on November 18, 2021 at the Roma Convention Center “La Nuvola”. (Photo by Tiziana Fabi/AFP Photo)

Coco, a dog dressed as Chucky, participates in a halloween pet show in Callao, Peru, Sunday, October 27, 2024. (Photo by Guadalupe Pardo/AP Photo)

Mount Kilimanjaro looms behind an elephant at Amboseli National Park in southern Kenya, 2024. (Photo byYaron Schmid/YS Wildlife Photography/Solent News)

Members of the US secret service scramble toward the stage as Donald Trump fell while speaking as shots rang out during a campaign rally at in Butler, Pennsylvania in 2024. (Photo by Jabin Botsford/Siena awards festival 2025)

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)