Digital Art vs. Photo Improvement

Okay, I think I'm starting to get a sense of photoshop elements - what I like about it and can see myself using it for on the digital art side.  Heather posted this link to Shadow House Creations which has some very artsy textures, and they're all free! If you're interested in learning how to use textures, check out this post from Kim Klassen.  I used the painted sonata texture with various blends to make the art above.  It started life as the following photograph, which seems like the perfect photograph to photoshop because of its light background, abundance of white space and inherently artsy quality:

I also used one of the Shadow House "oil cloth" textures to create this:

from this original photo:

More subtle, but still clearly photoshopped to change the photograph into digital art. 
On the other hand, here's a black and white conversion. Something that fits more in the realm of improving a basic photo, rather than creating digital art.  It was actually harder than I thought! LOL! The original first:

And the conversion:

Which do you prefer?