The Fusion of Sport and Art

Katharine across the pond sent me an article about a former cricketer that found his passion in making art with his sport. Michael Vaughan recently retired from cricket and claims he channeled inspiration from Martina Navratilova and her tennis ball art.

As silly as it may sound, Vaughan is quite serious. His tearful retirement and desire to return has been channeled into this new passion:

Salvation came from the unlikely inspiration of mind-numbing reality TV. He said: "I was watching that Celebrity Jungle on the box (I'm A Celebrity, Get Me Out Of Here!) and Martina Navratilova was saying how she had taken to creating art by hitting tennis balls at a canvas.

"I thought, why not try that with a cricket ball? So I experimented by smashing a few cover drives at a canvas, and recreated some images including special moments in my career, and we came up with artballing."

Michael Vaughan's collection will be exhibited at the Smithfield Gallery, London, from May 2.

You can see some of the cricketer's work here and even purchase if you like.