Oh, the amazing, large-scale beach portraits of Dutch artist Rineke Dijkstra. They almost look like hyper-real paintings, don’t they? These photographs, from her series titled Beach Portraits, are not only huge {approx 46″ x 37″!!}, they are also absolutely stunning in their quiet simplicity. Sigh.

{Looking for something to do this weekend? Perfect! There is a retrospective of her work currently showing at the Guggenheim from June 29 ~ October 8, 2012}

Lovely, yet somewhat disturbing, nudes by Vancouver based photographer Daphne Chan. They are so peaceful, soft, weird, and uncomfortable … sigh… I love them.

{There is a really good video interview with Daphne on “HOT ART WET CITY”… great insight into her work/subject matter.}

I’m not sure if you’ve seen my latest series of posts on sfgirlbybay, but I kind of love doing them! The column is called ART GOES HERE, and I write one every second Wednesday {which happens to be today!}. Basically, I find a beautiful interior design image, and using a little photoshop magic, I add three different selections of contemporary art to the shot. Sculpture, painting, installation – yep, anything goes!

To be totally honest, this is my dream job. Finding, and then hanging, the perfect art for someone’s home… I’d get to play matchmaker between artist and collector, and amazing work would end up on beautiful walls. Win, WIN! Here are a few little snippets from ART GOES HERE from the past few months {visit sfgirlbybay to see the full posts}:

{Art // 1. Tape ~ Alex Menocal 2. Lights ~ Steve Lambert 3. Photography ~ Amy Friend 4. Thread ~ Anne Lindberg 5. Chalk ~ Dana Tanamachi 6. Pen ~ Il Lee 7. Stairs – various images found on Pinterest by searching for ’staircases’}

~ and now I want to go to Italy. Jen Altman is a photographer & writer who spends half her time in Brooklyn, and the other half in North Carolina… I want to spend all of my time in one of her dreamy polaroids.

I have a major thing for magnolias. They are all over my neighborhood, and every spring I am overjoyed to see them bloom… speaking of joy, I am kind of in love with this work by Maine based artist Kari Herer. Pink magnolia petals helping black ink beetles take flight… yep, pure joy.

{via Honestly WTF}

LOVE!!! A friend pointed me to the portfolio of LA based photographer Jen Gotch… and I have basically just shown you everything in her ‘personal’ section! Well, that was the first half… here’s the second half:

Sweet jiminy… I love it all! She also has some gorgeous prints for sale… oh, ok, I’ll show you a few of my favorite shots from that section of her site too!

Gah. So good! Ok, I’ll stop now.

Neon love letters illuminating the evening landscape. Um, yes, I absolutely love this text-based work by Korean artist Jung Lee. She had me at “WHY?”

{via Colossal}

Yep, it’s my birthday… the last one in my 30’s – um, when did that happen?! Anywho, I have always loved my birthday, and today is no exception! I thought I’d share a few of my favorite images from my “random lovely things” pinboard … because, quite frankly, most of them sort of scream birthday! Ok, here we go:

Thanks for being part of my special day… I’m going to spend the rest of the day riding my new pink bike with my lovely husband, and eating chocolate cake. A lot. See you tomorrow!

{1. Glass bubblegum paperweights 2. Painting by Amanda Blake 3. NOW mirror by Doug Aitken 4. Neon/neutral party decor 5. Donut Queen! 6. Donut painting by Emily Eveleth 7. Mixed media cake by Martha Rich 8. YOU LOOK GREAT mirror by Jade Rude 9. Mixed media photograph by Unknown … to me anyway}

How do you know when someone is your friend? When they find something like this, and immediately send you the link {thank you Victoria!} These amazing painted animal masks on photographic portraits are the work of French artist Charlotte Caron. They were featured on Trendland yesterday, {so I’m sorry if you’ve already seen them}, but I couldn’t control myself – I had to post them too… it was that petite deer in her cream cable-knit sweater that got me!

Hm, jealous isn’t really the right word… I think obsessed is much more accurate! Yes. I am obsessed with the tiny, lovely little world of Duesseldorf based artist Sabine Timm. I’m about to show you what seems like most of her flickr stream, but I couldn’t help it {hence the term “obsession” I suppose}:

Gah!! Yep, I want to live in a teeny tiny house so that I can invite Sabine over for a teeny tiny cup of tea on a little bitty table… I call dibs on the chair though:

{via Luna}