A general view of the sunrise over Hawes, Wensleydale, UK on November 24, 2014. (Photo by Neil Squires/PA Wire)

A man performs a split as he practices Kung Fu at Beihai Park in Beijing, China August 20, 2017. (Photo by Reuters/China Stringer Network)

A woman carries her cat as she walks near Kyiv-Pasazhyrskyi railway station in Kyiv in the morning of February 24, 2022. Air raid sirens rang out in downtown Kyiv today as cities across Ukraine were hit with what Ukrainian officials said were Russian missile strikes and artillery. (Photo by Daniel Leal/AFP Photo)

A US Marine leads two Viet Cong suspects in restraints during the Tet Offensive on February 20, 1967. (Photo by Bettmann Archive/Getty Images)

Spectators, young and old and of all colors of the rainbow, lined the canals in the Dutch capital to watch the colorful spectacle of the Pride Canal Parade return for the 25th edition after the last two events were canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, in Amsterdam, Netherlands, Saturday, August 6, 2022. (Photo by Peter Dejong/AP Photo)

Women demonstrate on International Women's Day as they strike to demand the end to domestic violence and the country's prevailing “macho” culture, in Milan, Italy on March 8, 2023. (Photo by Claudia Greco/Reuters)

A woman, her hands decorated with traditional henna, prays during Eid al-Fitr prayer at historical Badshahi mosque in Lahore, Pakistan, Sunday, May 24, 2020. (Photo by K.M. Chaudary/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)