Random things in my backyard

Corey, great stuff!

The first one is interesting and has some nice shapes and lines, which is often what abstract is about.  I would have liked to see a depth of field that kept the entire image sharp however, so that the colors were a more integral part of directing the viewer's eye instead of the focus.  As it is, I see primarily blurriness, and the sharp area isn't specifically the subject matter.  Also, maybe bump the saturation just slightly and give it a barely discernable vignette (not to be too obvious).  I honestly don't know that this is an impactful enough image to me, but it is great to step out of the box and try new things and you should keep doing it.

The second image is much more impactful, and I believe it stands on its own as an art piece without the explanation.  I don't know if the background has been burned down or not, but if there is just a little more of the colorful bokeh there, I would like to see it.  Either that or the background needs to be completely black so it resembles a painting on black velvet.  Just my thoughts on that.  Also, I think you can crop from both sides a little, there is too much negative space and I think you can balance the image better with a crop.

As a side note, if you are going to use a stroke around an image for display, I think you can get a much better presentation with a much thinner stripe.  On an image this size, it may only need to be 2-3 pixels wide.  Then, make the outer 'mat' wider.  Another thing to think about is using colors from the image as the stroke, that will help it be a stronger enhancer in the presentation.  Just use the eyedropper in several places in the image and see what comes out of it.

Travis

I agree with Travis, but I vote leave #2 alone, as far as background.

And thanks, people were talking too much and not shooting... [grin]

My skill level is not like most here so mine would be more of an opinion than a comment.

I like the first one for the warm colors that are in it.  I would like to see the crop different, more of a rectangle that has the web as the main focal point with more of the brick wall on the right side.

On the second one it looks like the background was "burned" a bit to heavily.

I'll talk about #2 since #1 has been treated nicely.

#2, when Ed talked about spotting in his latest posting on critiquing, it was done years ago in the wet room to rid of dust and and other distractions. Today, we have image software programs to rid of distracting areas.

One such area is at the tip/bottom of subject, a whitish light, we know as viewers it is not your subject. Therefore, a cloning to rid of the white would help keep our eyes up on the subject.
In this case, the black background, I believe, is a compliment to the subject, so long as we have the branch at the top in view.
I would also suggest to increase your aperture to have all in focus next time you do a similar shoot.

Good to see art in photography