Well, yes, it possible to do this with purely web technologies. The question you have to ask yourself is if it's worth it to go through so many hoops to display something that would be far easier to do in a simple graphics app (and also available to everyone with a browser that can display images).
Feel free to check up on the <canvas>, SVG and VML (and also IEs rather nice filters). You can have a lot of fun - but you can't beat a simple image for a universal solution
