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)

North Korean traffic police women chat next to a residential building while off duty Tuesday, October 18, 2016, in Pyongyang, North Korea. (Photo by Wong Maye-E/AP Photo)

The space shuttle Atlantis lifts off from launch pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida May 14, 2010. (Photo by Pierre Ducharme/Reuters)

This picture taken on March 16, 2017 shows a crew member introducing the dining car of the Train Suite Shiki- Shima, operated by East Japan Railway, in Tokyo during a press preview. The luxury sleeper Shiki- Shima, which can accommodate up to 34 passengers, has 10 cars, including a lounge car, a dining car and two observatory cars. The train has only 17 cabins, all suites, and the most expensive room, known as Shiki- Shima Suite, is priced at 950,000 yen (8480 USD) per person when shared by two people. (Photo by AFP Photo/JIJI Press)

Woman on swings attached to a float during the Sexual Freedom Parade, part of Naughty in N'awlins held in New Orleans, Louisiana, Wednesday July 5th, 2017. These are the photos from inside the world’s largest swinging convention for couples. The exclusive images reveal the unlikely couples who like to engage in sexual relations with other people besides their partners – and show that swinging is more ‘normal’ than you think. (Photo by Mathew Growcoot/News Dog Media)

A girl watches an acrobatic performance at the Longtan park as the Chinese Lunar New Year, which welcomes the Year of the Monkey, is celebrated in Beijing, China February 9, 2016. (Photo by Damir Sagolj/Reuters)

Students from St Andrews University indulge in a tradition of covering themselves with foam to honour the “academic family” on the lower college lawn on October 23, 2017, in St Andrews, Scotland. (Photo by Jeff J. Mitchell/Getty Images)

Chinese model Ming Xi falls down on runway during the 2017 Victoria's Secret Fashion Show at Mercedes-Benz Arena on November 20, 2017 in Shanghai, China. (Photo by VCG/VCG via Getty Images)