In the next, he would reject traditional artists' tools in favor of found objects, black tar paper (textured and pebbly and quite iridescent, giving the impression of a midnight sky) or sentimental postcards, eliminating, in a sense, all traces of technique and skill--and even of the artist (some of the "objects" were assembled by carpenters).

FORBES: Miro's Creative Destruction

As the plane gained altitude, I could see the vast black pits of the tar-sands mines that surround Fort McMurray.

NEWYORKER: Unconventional Crude

Originally they were derived from coal-tar, the black viscous waste product left over from distilling coal for gas.

FORBES: Jelly Beans: Which Color Is Most Popular At Easter? Why We Love Colored Foods

And even the black goo used by the ancient Romans to lubricate their chariot axels was a petroleum-based form of natural tar.

FORBES: Peak Oil and ERoEI: Still Nonsense

It was a time when phrases like "scrip, " "black lung" and "mining disaster" fell from the lips of workers, wives and children like the tar-colored dust that settled on their windowsills.

NPR: Beans and Cornbread: Feeding Souls a Mile Deep