{"id":2634,"date":"2026-04-20T16:27:57","date_gmt":"2026-04-20T16:27:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mckinneyarts.com\/blog\/?p=2634"},"modified":"2026-04-20T16:27:57","modified_gmt":"2026-04-20T16:27:57","slug":"tar-on-a-walking-path-takes-on-a-new-form","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mckinneyarts.com\/blog\/tar-on-a-walking-path-takes-on-a-new-form\/","title":{"rendered":"Tar on a walking path takes on a new form"},"content":{"rendered":"

I was out for a walk along the Arroyo de los Chamisos Trail in Santa Fe when I noticed this uniquely shaped tar patch along the paved path. It’s almost like a drip, but there’s something about the thicker drip at left and the two drips that run down on the right that made me think of something else …<\/p>\n

Can you see a hand? A thumb and two long skinny fingers? Does it help you see it if I turn the tar 90° to the left? Does it help if I show this “hand” doing something hand-like, for example, playing a Steinway piano?<\/p>\n

\"A
A tar hand playing a Steinway Piano, an example of pareidolia.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This is an example of pareidolia<\/a>, which is the tendency to perceive a meaningful interpretation of a visual stimulus, which usually has nothing to do with the actual thing being seen. For example, seeing a face in the clouds, or in this case, a hand with the tar drips.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I was out for a walk along the Arroyo de los Chamisos Trail in Santa Fe when I noticed this uniquely shaped tar patch along the paved path. It’s almost like a drip, but there’s something about the thicker drip at left and the two drips that run down on the right that made me … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2638,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21,48],"tags":[820,579,665,821],"class_list":["post-2634","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-found-art","category-street-photography","tag-arroyo-de-los-chamisos-trail","tag-pareidolia","tag-santa-fe","tag-tar"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mckinneyarts.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2634","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mckinneyarts.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mckinneyarts.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mckinneyarts.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mckinneyarts.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2634"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/mckinneyarts.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2634\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2640,"href":"https:\/\/mckinneyarts.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2634\/revisions\/2640"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mckinneyarts.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2638"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mckinneyarts.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2634"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mckinneyarts.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2634"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mckinneyarts.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2634"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}