Dark and Light, Front and Back

I thought I could share the small pieces of the painting I cut up to use in my Upcycle series.
I don't have a picture of the original painting but as you can see it was dark.  Or perhaps I was dark!

These pieces are about 4 x 7 ".  I don't know why I chose that size.  It probably made sense at the time.  Then I added some collage elements, stitched on them both with the machine and by hand.  On some I added oil crayon markings and shapes.

The bottom photo is the back side of the pieces with more collage, drawing and coloring.

So, why do I continuously work on both sides of the page?  (See my Farmscapes which are also two-sided.)

I think it has something to do with the stitching which makes a mark on the backside as well as the front.  I find those marks intriguing on the blank side of the paper/canvas.  It offers me a whole other surface to respond to.

When I was in graduate school, several people commented on the backside of my fabric pieces, finding them interesting on their own.  Actually, I think some of the people, professors especially, liked the back of the work better than the front!

So I have made an effort to think about this side/surface, although I have never been able to leave it alone....meaning just go with the stitching without adding anything else.  Perhaps that would be a good challenge for a series of small pieces.  And I think you can look forward to some of the pieces in the Upcycle series being light ones, using the backside of the work instead of the darker original painting side.