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 festivalgoer enjoys the weather in the circus area at the Glastonbury Festival at Worthy Farm in Somerset, United Kingdom on Thursday, June 22, 2023. (Photo by Ben Birchall/PA Images via Getty Images)

A mischievous squirrel chases a turkey in a garden in Medford, Wisconsin in the second decade of January 2024. The garden’s owner, artist Cheryl Plautz, said the squirrels chase the birds “for fun”. (Photo by Cheryl Plautz/Solent News)

A baby of an internally displaced woman gets weighed during a doctor and nutritionist review to prevent malnutrition at a makeshift clinic in Ladan IDP camp, on the outskirts of Dollow, in Jubaland state, Somalia, 30 January 2024. (Photo by Daniel Irungu/EPA/EFE)

Supporters of former US President and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump arrive for a campaign rally at the PPL Center in Allentown, Pennsylvania, on October 29, 2024. (Photo by Angela Weiss/AFP Photo)

Believers offer tribute to Iemanja, the Goddess of the Sea of the Afro-American religion Umbanda, at Ramirez beach in Montevideo on February 2, 2025. (Photo by Eitan Abramovich/AFP Photo)

President Donald Trump waves in the direction of supporters as former Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio gives a thumbs-up, as he leaves the Trump International Golf Club, Monday, February 17, 2025, in West Palm Beach, Fla. (Photo by Ben Curtis/AP Photo)

People go into the Washington Square fountain as they take part in the NYC Dyke March during New York's Pride week LGBTQ+ celebration in New York City, U.S., June 28, 2025. (Photo by Eduardo Munoz/Reuters)