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 Ukrainian service member smokes near a frontline, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Donetsk region, Ukraine on February 8, 2023. (Photo by Yevhenii Zavhorodnii/Reuters)

A pilgrim crawls in front of the Navy band outside the Holy Church of Panagia of Tinos, on the Aegean island of Tinos, Greece, on Saturday, August 15, 2020. For nearly 200 years, Greek Orthodox faithful have flocked to Tinos for the August 15 feast day of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary, the most revered religious holiday in the Orthodox calendar after Easter. But this year there was no procession, the ceremony – like so many lives across the globe – upended by the coronavirus pandemic. (Photo by Thanassis Stavrakis/AP Photo)

A pair of otters share a soft kiss over seaweed on the Isle of Mull, Scotland in the first decade of October 2025. (Photo by David Akers/Solent News & Photo Agency)

A dog dressed as a Zoltar fortune telling machine participates in the Halloween Dog Parade in New York. (Photo by Timothy Clary/Getty Images)

Old Heidelberg, Dog with Pipe, 1905. (Photo by Detroit Publishing Company)

Bouboule, an English bulldog rests in its hotel room at Actuel Dogs on April 19, 2011 in Vincennes, France. Opened in November 2010 by Devi and Stan Burun, Actuel Dogs is a five-star luxury hotel for dogs with four single rooms and two suites. With the aim of meeting the dogs' needs, the hotel offers activities including doggy walks, doggy rando (hiking), doggy jogs, doggy velo (running next to a bike) and other services such as dog massage. The hotel also caters to the needs of people living in small appartments or who don't have the time to walk their dogs. (Photo by Franck Prevel/Getty Images)