eileen, read your blogpost and looked at the images. love them!
i saved a copy of the first image to my ipad and tried to figure out what i thought it needed.
this is what takes up most of my time while working on my own art, i manipulate a photograph until i come up with an interesting image, and then i think, something needs to be added in the right hand corner, or: i need a way to boost these colors, or: this is okay, but what would make it perfect?
after pondering your image with its great colors and shapes and textures (though some of the texture fades away in the photograph, get flattened, i think the real thing must me even better!) i brought it into the art studio app and started adding some black to elevate those awesome shapes from the background. i then sprayed some yellow and white paint over the black, because i wanted to make it lighter and create some kind of dark contour. then i also drew some black lines around some of the other shapes within the larger shape i just elevated out of the blue. finally i decided to add some white, following the lines you had already scratched inside the paint, then expanded them somewhat.
the result was a bit too bright and opaque for my taste so i covered the white lines with some semi-transparent black ones.

tadaa!!!

i loved playing around with your image and it helped me realize what was missing, hope this will help you decide what to do next.
in short: i think you need to decide on what your main shape is and then do something to make it pop out, so the viewer follows your lead. and i think you should add some contrasting colors inside the shapes, find a way to accentuate some shapes and fade some of the others, everything is still a bit 'flat' now, despite the texturing.
you know what the weirdest thing is....? after i finished playing around with your art i realized that i had subconsciously recreated a shape i had been using in my own work just a few hours before..... here is the image i had just finished, titled:
the poet's bitter legacy

just look at that head, cut off above the nose...... and at the downward curve made by the lining of her shirt..... ain't that amazing?

helga