Focus: June 30, 2026

 Open to Interpretation

#Focus

Game on...on the radio...Dodgers at Athletics...Focus...as in "soft focus"...aspect rather than perspective...or some such... new clip, podcast illustrated with Egyptian art, mostly ritual mourners, mourning...sad to think on...aand, I just lose myself in how it is all a marvel...the line work of the artists might have a goal behind it...Ohtani up...I was listening, and my focus became peripheral-no center of focus, and 🍿, a sudden the scenes took on a liveliness...hard to explain...from static cartoons to real figures...in art viewing, this has term..."soft focus"...and that term I found trying to figure out what I was seeing...Pages with hit...Freeman up...Dodgers score two...Dodgers 2-As 0...bottom of first...aand, it's a term out of line with what I'm trying to say: that the Egyptian artist were trying to use soft focus...

✨️Ancient Egyptian art prioritizes "aspective" representation over linear perspective, meaning objects and figures are drawn from their most informative and recognizable angles to capture their eternal essence rather than a fleeting, single-viewpoint moment. [1, 2]

The Concept of Aspective Art
Rather than trying to capture a three-dimensional illusion from one fixed viewpoint (the Western tradition of perspective), Egyptian artists broke down subjects into their most diagnostic parts and reconstructed them on a flat plane. The term "aspective" describes this conceptual approach, where information and completeness trump visual realism. This design served a vital religious and magical purpose: to give the subject permanence and order in the afterlife. [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
Visual Conventions of Aspective Style
• Composite Views: Human figures are depicted with the head and limbs in profile, but the eye and shoulders facing fully frontal to maximize clarity. [1, 2]Hieratic Scale: The size of a figure directly reflects their social or divine importance rather than their physical distance from the viewer. [1, 2]No Vanishing Point: Scenes lack foreshortening or horizon lines; instead, they use flat, parallel lines called registers to organize space and depth

🎶the artists' "most informative and recognizable angles"...in figure drawing class one is shown how to look for landmarks, elbows, knees, the back of knees, opposite curves-concave, convex...all kinds of things that suggest the figure...our acuity for seeing is keen for the figure, faces, gestures...the Egyptians take it to a level like Picasso...

✨️Viewing Pablo Picasso’s abstract and Cubist art with an "unfocused" eye or a soft blur can radically alter how you perceive its complex forms. [1]

How Soft Focus Changes the Artwork
• Blurs Fractured Lines: Cubism breaks objects into sharp geometric fragments, which soften when viewed out of focus.Emphasizes Color Blocks: Bold patches of color shift to the foreground, taking precedence over harsh structural lines.Reveals Hidden Shapes: Squinting or looking past the details allows the mind to synthesize multiple overlapping perspectives into a singular mood or large emotional form.Mimics Picasso's Process: Picasso often painted from shifting viewpoints, meaning an unfocused view leans directly into the fluidity of his abstract visual language.

🎶Ohtani up...AI hasn't got what I'm trying to say...but it gets at we have a regular way of viewing, and there are others...basketball players use peripheral vision...

✨️Yes, baseball hitters heavily rely on peripheral vision. When facing a pitch, a batter uses "soft focus" or a visual pivot point—anchoring their eyes near the pitcher's release point while using peripheral vision to pick up the ball's trajectory and minute details like its spin. [1, 2, 3, 4]

Professional hitters utilize several specific vision strategies at the plate:
• Visual Pivot Points: Batters often fixate on a reference point close to the pitcher's release point (like their hat or hip) so they can track the ball's immediate emergence into their peripheral vision. [1]Quiet Eye Technique: Elite hitters hold a steady, concentrated gaze (the "quiet eye") right before the pitch is delivered, allowing the brain more time to process visual information and initiate a swing. [1, 2]Dynamic Visual Acuity: Because pitches travel at extremely high speeds, batters must process a slightly blurred image and use peripheral perception to estimate the ball's final location in the strike zone. [1]
Peripheral vision is also highly trainable, and many major leaguers use sports vision training to sharpen their reaction times and dynamic visual acuity. [1, 2]

✨️Picasso’s signature "soft" or stylized visual approach—specifically the cubist technique of depicting an object from multiple viewpoints simultaneously—is heavily inspired by Ancient Egyptian art. He incorporated this cross-cultural borrowing directly into his foundational works, such as Les Demoiselles d'Avignon (1907). [1, 2, 3]

Key Details of this Influence
• Multiple Perspectives: Ancient Egyptian tomb paintings and wall reliefs famously depicted the human body simultaneously from the front (torso and eye) and in profile (head, arms, and legs). Picasso used this concept to reject 500 years of European Renaissance perspective, allowing him to show different angles of a face or object in a single image. [1, 2, 3, 4]The 1907 Breakthrough: In his seminal painting Les Demoiselles d'Avignon, the figure on the far left exhibits distinct facial features and a rigid posture derived directly from Egyptian and Iberian styles. Art historians often describe this as the launching point for his Cubist and Primitivist periods. [1, 2, 3]L'Egyptienne: Picasso later directly referenced this connection in his 1950s work The Egyptian (or L'Egyptienne), a sugar-lift aquatint print depicting his partner Françoise Gilot. This piece fused front-facing and profile views with striking, elongated features. [1, 2, 3]

🎶my reach, is in how the Egyptians draw butts, bottoms, both male and female...as always, they have a canon on how to draw butts...they're just bumps under the clothing....then it gets worse...the women have womanish curves, the thigh, the calf, ankles, legs together sideways...and the men are straight legged...always like this on walls, papyrus, coffins, figures...AI notes the other things...but it is just the butts alone...with soft focus, the peripheral, can cue...Tommy with first homerun this year on return!...and the other anatomy cues make for the liveliness...with Picasso, his cleverness is owned up to...how the Egyptians arrived at their cleverness, I dunno...a puzzle tho for the curious!...Picasso said to make one painting for himself, another to market...?...thing is he didn't repeat...thing is, the Egyptians repeated everything!...if you have something unique, an artifact, said to be from ancient Egypt, ask if it's fake!...the repitition is some kinda clever...see the same in pre-Columbian Americas...Ohtani up...infield hit...

✨️Egyptian aspective art—often called "frontalism"—is a technique where artists depicted the most recognizable angle of every body part simultaneously rather than rendering realistic perspective. This ensured that every essential feature remained perfectly clear, complete, and eternal. [1, 2, 3, 4]

Key Characteristics
• The Head: Shown in profile, but the eye is drawn as if looking directly forward.The Torso: Shoulders and chest face completely forward to display the full breadth of the body.The Legs & Feet: Shown in profile, striding forward, with the big toe visible on the outside of both feet. [1, 2]
Iconic Examples
• The Narmer Palette: Housed in the Egyptian Museum, this early, highly influential artifact shows King Narmer in classic aspective poses. His torso faces forward, while his head and legs are in profile as he vanquishes an enemy. [1, 2, 3]Tomb of Nebamun (British Museum): Famous fragments feature banquet scenes and fowling scenes. The musicians and figures are rendered in strict aspective poses, showcasing front-facing torsos and profile heads.Tomb of Queen Nefertari (Valley of the Queens): The wall paintings in Nefertari’s tomb (such as her playing Senet) demonstrate this technique beautifully, combining aspective human figures with completely flat, profile depictions of furniture and hieroglyphs. [1, 2]Relief of Akhenaten and His Family (Berlin State Museums): Even during the unconventional Amarna period, the royal family's bodies were rendered utilizing the traditional aspective alignment of head, torso, and limbs. [1, 2]

🎶bottom of fourth...I dont know why they do this, or even if they know they are doing this...suspect Egyptians just did things from instinct like birds flying, fish swimming-the Nile and Desert was the medium that shaped them...mediums can make things...top of fifth...Teoscar up...Dodgers 5-As 1...for reals...why the ancients thought them gods...Incas with their mountains...Tommy with a hit...pause for a snack!...oh, the As and Dodgers both have players namedMuncie-cause of the bobbles I thought...bbk...bk...Angels 1-Mariners 6...there, sixth inning...Dodgers 9-As 3...

🧐https://youtu.be/iwMH3JLcDuw?is=ywpcftvTmcdiND1g

🎶the scenes take on feelings with soft focus...asking why? comes back with the usual, Egyptians didn't have a word for art, scenes were magic spells directed at the gods, and so on...what did an Egyptian kid with a paint box think to become...a stamp?..."keep the line going..."...Manager Roberts to win his thousandth game...bottom of ninth...baseball stats are trivia...and sacred...Dodgers 9-As 3...

:)

DavidDavid