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)

James Kerr started his project “Scorpion Dagger” without any real direction, except for the intention to make one GIF everyday(ish) for one year. He had been making collages for some time and “Scorpion Dagger” started out to be a test of discipline and a way for him to learn how to animate. Making GIFs was a logical evolution to him. The project represents many different things to him, the works from which he draws upon are so powerful and inspirational to him, that he is now nearly obsessed with repurposing them to share his vision of the world, and perhaps inspire people to look at art differently. The project is tremendously personal to him, it’s a lot more than the humor that’s at its surface and he is still trying to work out what “Scorpion Dagger” really is.

James Kerr started his project “Scorpion Dagger” without any real direction, except for the intention to make one GIF everyday(ish) for one year. He had been making collages for some time and “Scorpion Dagger” started out to be a test of discipline and a way for him to learn how to animate. Making GIFs was a logical evolution to him. The project represents many different things to him, the works from which he draws upon are so powerful and inspirational to him, that he is now nearly obsessed with repurposing them to share his vision of the world, and perhaps inspire people to look at art differently. The project is tremendously personal to him, it’s a lot more than the humor that’s at its surface and he is still trying to work out what “Scorpion Dagger” really is.

An idol of Hindu goddess Durga floats in water as devotees immerse the same in the River Kuakhai after the Durga Puja festival in Bhubaneswar, India, Saturday, October 24, 2015. The immersion of idols marks the end of the festival that commemorates the slaying of a demon king by lion-riding, 10-armed goddess Durga, marking the triumph of good over evil. (Photo by Biswaranjan Rout/AP Photo)

Nepalese Hindu women pray to worship Lord Shiva during the first day of the Sarwan Brata festival, the month of fasting, at the premises of Pashupati Temple in Kathmandu, Nepal, 18 July 2016. Thousands of married and single Nepalese Hindu women will gather in temples for each Monday of the Sawan month (spanning from 16 July to 16 August) to pray for a long and prosperous life of their husbands or for a chance to find a good one. (Photo by Narendra Shrestha/EPA)

Orthodox Christian pilgrims from Abkhazia walk along the Via Dolorosa (Way of Suffering), during the Good Friday procession in Jerusalem's old city on April 29, 2016. Thousands of pilgrims took part in processions along the route where, according to tradition, Jesus carried the cross during his last days. (Photo by Gali Tibbon/AFP Photo)

People decorate a street with candles inside oranges during the Epitaph ceremony during Good Friday's “Apokathelosis”, the Descent of Christ's dead body from the Cross, which forms a key part of Orthodox Easter, in the southern city of Leonidio, at the Peloponnese peninsula on April 26, 2019. Millions of Greeks flock to churches around the country this week to celebrate Easter, the country's foremost religious celebration. (Photo by Aris Messinis/AFP Photo)

People and Nature category winner: Why did the sloth cross the road? by Andrew Whitworth (Osa Conservation and University of Glasgow), taken in Osa Peninsula, Costa Rica. “I was driving out from the Osa Peninsula, located on the southern Pacific coast of Costa Rica on a dark, stormy day. This female three-toed sloth (Bradypus variegatus) had luckily just about made it across the road, and the drivers of the Toyota on this occasion had spotted her in good time”. (Photo by Andrew Whitworth/2019 British Ecological Society Photography Competition)