Mount Etna erupts in Sicily, Italy on February 21, 2021 sending plumes of ash and spewing lava into air. There was a major increase in volcanic activity that led to a paroxysmal event at the Southeast crater for the fourth time in the past six days. (Photo by Wead/Alamy Live News)

A priest sprinkles holy water at a cat at a drive-through pet blessing, ahead of World Animal Day, at a mall in Quezon City, Metro Manila, Philippines on October 2, 2022. (Photo by Lisa Marie David/Reuters)

A Tyrannosaurus Rex dinosaur costume runs on the field as young boys play an exhibition soccer match during halftime of the MLS soccer game between the Los Angeles Galaxy and Seattle Sounders FC in Carson, California May 26, 2013. The dinosaur was on the field to promote the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County. (Photo by Danny Moloshok/Reuters)

A member of a local swimming club holds a Russian national flag as he dives in at the start of a 24-hour swimming marathon near the western Siberian city of Barnaul March 29, 2014. Thirty members of the club will swim in turn during the event, held to mark Crimea becoming part of Russia, local media reported. (Photo by Andrei Kasprishin/Reuters)

Romanian riot police detain a man, face covered in blood, after minor clashes erupted during a protest in Bucharest, Romania, Thursday, February 2, 2017. Brief clashes broke out between protesters and police in Romania¹s capital, as tens of thousands of people protested for the second night a government decision to decriminalise official misconduct. (Photo by Vadim Ghirda/AP Photo)

In this March 14, 2015 photo, tourists take pictures from a viewing area at Iguazu Falls in Brazil. From walkways and bridges, viewers can count 270 water falls almost 100 meters (330 feet) high. (Photo by Jorge Saenz/AP Photo)

A cloud of black smoke billows out the exhaust pipe of John Robertson's diesel dragster as he runs down the track during the 2015 NHRA Kansas Nationals, Friday, May 22, 2015, at Heartland Park in Topeka, Kan. (Photo by Chris Neal/The Topeka Capital-Journal via AP Photo)

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)