Digital Reproduction

I love how you adopt Rene Magritte's style and further explores the theme of "distance" in a modern, urban context. After learning about Magritte's background in your documentation (which is very detailed and informative), I was very moved by the symbolism and ideas behind this piece. Your analysis of "The Lovers" makes me realize that it is actually a commentary on the reality that people conceal themselves in romantic relationships, and I think that is very powerful. You also helped me learn that Magritte's pieces have a sense of narrative to them, with each picture telling a story, describing a relationship. In his original piece, the two subjects portrayed are supposedly in love, and their physical closeness and emotional distancing caused by the masks create a powerful, saddening contrast. You recreated this contrast very well in your own piece: the Japanese workers are seemingly walking on the same road, right next to each other, towards the same direction, but they intentionally distance themselves from the rest. In a way, you composed a social commentary just like Magritte did in "The Lovers." The execution is also beautiful. Wonderful job!

Creativity: I really like the idea of incorporating Magritte and modern hustle and bustle. From your documentation I learned that Magritte is famous for depicting the depression and beauty of people’s emotions, and I think your re-production is a great way to highlight this theme.
Execution: This rendered artwork showed great Photoshop skills. I also like the way you color the photo.
Context: Overall the work is pretty informed. As somebody who has never learned Magritte before, I can easily understand the theory and ideas behind him.
Documentation: The documentation is pretty easy to understand.
Overall I really like your re-production! One thing to maybe consider on is the way to deal with people’s shoes. As of now they look a little off. Other than that the picture looks great!

I think it's quite interesting and creative that you are drawing connections between Rene Magritte's artwork and modern life, between love and everyday human connections. I can certainly sense distance among people in your recreation as the it is portrayed in the original piece by Magritte. On top of the amazing connections between these two pieces, and the powerful underlying context, you also implemented your ideas very well. You also explained your inspiration and ideas clearly. All of these things provided a good guide for me to follow along your thoughts and to appreciate "The Lovers" as well as your recreation of it. You did a beautiful job and I enjoyed this post.

I find your idea of incorporating the distance between every person into the digital reproduction brilliant. On one hand, it imitates and generalizes the artist’s potential idea that “people cannot open their hearts even to their beloved ones”. On the other hand, it poignantly points out the fact that people are commonly hiding their true emotions and/or themselves from one another. The background colors from the original artwork also work perfectly in this context where particularly, the greyish blue creates the same depressing effect. Overall this work is excellent and I like it very much. But, it could become even more successful if more attention has been made to the details. Note that some figures are losing their shoes in the final work (probably because they were too blurred in the primary photo); the color of some small parts in the center has not been changed; and although the oil painting filter did a great job (the effect is very adorable), I personally find the white fabric painted with smooth and fine strokes in the original artwork yields a better sense of estrangement.

Your effort of incorporating Rene Magritte's elements into a modern photograph is truly successful. Your work looks harmonic and visually pleasing. Moreover, the kind of sadness you intended to express with your work further brings meanings and exemplifies Rene Magritte's moods and themes. The way you took out the original noisy background in the photograph and repainted it with the same style as that of Rene Magritte's painting's background reinforces such reference. Beautiful creative job!!!

This is a really great project. Your interpretation and remix of the original style and content is inspired and informed by your research.