I hesitate to use the word "art," because I'm not sure that what I do with the iPhone counts as art.  So when I use the word "art" (with respect to anything I do) it should be understood as an amateur attempt at art.

That said, using a couple of inexpensive applications it is possible to do some pretty cool abstract pictures on the iPhone.  In what follows I'm going to show you how to assemble an abstract work.  Whether it qualifies as good or bad art, or even art at all, I leave to you to decide.  But I'll show you the tools and the method, and you try your own hand at it.

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First, here's a completed sample of the kind of thing you can do all on the iPhone:

 

 What we're going to do is to take ordinary photos and use them as a kind of "paint," if you will, to create a very different kind of photo.

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 The tools I will use are the Photogene and Juxtaposer applications.  Both are inexpensive, only $2.99 each.  (I have no interest in these other than as a satisfied customer.)  There are many other photo apps for the iPhone, but these will be sufficient for now.

With Photogene you can crop, straighten, and adjust color, exposure, and contrast.  It is very simple to use, and is a good tool to have.

Juxtaposer allows you to combine photographs.  Most people use it to put their spouse's head on their dog's body, etc., but I'm going to show you how to use it in a very different way.

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I'll start with four ordinary photographs:

This is a photo of the local city hall, just some windows and reflections.  This will be our base photo, our main "canvas," so to speak:

 

 And here is a photo taken through an office window:

 An office building with the sky reflected in the windows:

A black and white photo of some torn plastic (was in color, but I removed the color with Photogene):

And last but not least, your host (autographed copies are available for a small fee).  I have already stripped the color and adjusted the contrast with Photogene :

 

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 First, we load our base image into Juxtaposer.  And then, we load the first image we're going to use as the "paint" on our "canvas":

 

 From the upper right corner we select the tool that will allow us to adust the transparency of the new photo, all the way from completely visible to invisible -- just by rubbing the image with a finger:

 

 

Using the controls in Juxtaposer you can move and resize both the top and bottom images.  What I do is to position the top image exactly where I want it.  Then I erase the entire image, and unerase the part that I want to keep.  Here's where I put the top image:

 

 Continue with the same process for all of the other images.  From the upper left icon select from the menu "Add or replace top image" and add the new image, positioning, erasing, and unerasing as necessary. 

Here I use the clouds and windows from the office building:

 

 

  And now the torn plastic:

 

 

 And finally, me, with the same process of positioning, erasing, and unerasing:

 

 

 And here's the final product:

 

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My guess is that this is not going to end up in the Museum of Modern Art.  At least I hope it doesn't.

 But I hope this will give you some new ideas of what you can do with your iPhones.  And the cool thing is that you can take existing pictures and combine them into entirely new and interesting images.

And yes, you can also put your spouse's head on your dog's body: