What is that Brubaker nut talking about – He is talking about “Pareidolia” – “The tendency to see things in random dots”  

Some people – like me – just can’t stare at the sky without imagining a fluffy bunny floating by or look at a piece of wood or a rock without thinking they see a face grinning out at them.  Everywhere I look I see things that are not there – In tree stumps, clouds, rocks, gardens, paintings – everywhere!!

Everywhere except one place – yesterdays posting.  Cheryl texted  me yesterday and said – “I found the fox you hid in the bear & and the face you hid there too” The funny thing is I did not put them there – but after re-looking this morning I see, they are there! In fact, that is all I see:

Yesterday’s post

Enhanced a little to make fox and face more visible

Up close – I circled fox and face – Now scroll back up and, if you are like me,  you see no bear – you only focus on fox and face??????

If you feel like reading, here is a little more on “Pareidolia”:

Pareidolia is normal according to Dr. Kang Lee, a neuroscientist at the University of Toronto. Lee published a study last year that found the human brain is essentially hard-wired to recognize shapes in objects.   “It happens in auditory domains as well,” Lee said. “You might feel your cell phone vibrating when it’s not.”  

You are more likely to see or hear them when you are in a good mood.  Women are also more likely to see faces or feel the phone than men.

Pareidolia helps us to be super alert … and thus has had evolutionarily advantageous,”

In Sagan’s 1995 book, “The Demon-Haunted World” he argued that the ability to recognize faces from a distance or in poor visibility was an important survival technique. This instinct enables humans to  be aware that an oncoming object may just happen to be a person and focus to see if it is a friend or foe or just the friendly random dots in the outline of a tree trunk. 

Leonardo da Vinci wrote about Pareidolia as a tool for artists. “If you look at any wall spotted with various stains or with a mixture  of stones, you can see a scene that you will be able to put into a painting. As you paint, your painting its self evolves – You better see landscapes adorned with mountains, rivers, rocks, trees, plains, wide valleys, and various groups of hills.”  

Did Georgia O’Keefe hide objects in the flowers?  Observers often view  objects in Georgia O’Keeffe’s flower paintings – do you see them?

Oh my! – Hope I am not a nut. Well if I am – it is a lot of fun looking for things that are not.

The artistic liberty of my mind makes me smile sometimes – Photoshop helps me show it to you.