Auction Block: A Nice Bust

Want to buy your own sporting statue?

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An hour later, he traded it for a leather jacket and new aviators off of 8th Avenue.

Get a group of art collectors together and put them in a room with a bunch of sports memorabilia collectors. You can cut the mutual disdain with a butter knife.

But consider this: There is a place where sports and art intersect. And we're not just talking about the hand-painted mural at your local barber shop. The Heisman trophy is a miniature statue, designed by sculptor Frank Eliscu, for one famous example. Similar statuary dots famous stadiums and arenas across the United States—His Airness in Chicago, Roberto Clemente in Pittsburgh, Phog Allen in Lawrence.

A recent exhibition at the Baseball Hall of Fame focused on artwork inspired by the national pastime. The images included Negro Leagues legend Cool Papa Bell glaring a challenge from a large sheet of canvas, a classic head-and-shoulders bust of Christy Matthewson, and Honus Wagner in dark metal, providing a contrast to the wood and bronze plaques in the nearby atrium. It being the HOF and all, the focus was on big name players.

Looking for semi-affordable artistic renderings of sport is a tricky pursuit. Art is subjective, after all. But a good rule of thumb is to look for art without team affiliation, because marketing and licensing tend to stand in the way of true inspiration. Norman Rockwell was able to find the American spirit lurking within our favorite games without being partisan, and some little-known contemporary artists also manage to deal with sports in original ways.

For instance, eBay seller Keri Joy molds and home-fires polymer clay dolls that represent what she calls "babes with attitude". The doll named Football Widow is a prime example. Joy says the pigskin-themed figure evokes the freedom some women feel when their husbands spend the weekend in front of the tube. But she admits the doll doesn't jibe with her own feelings. The artist says she's the one most often glued to the screen on NFL Sundays, and that her fantasy football exploits have earned her the title of Waiver Wire Queen. Sounds like a great name for her next one-of-a-kind work of art.

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Jordan at his own unveiling. Meta.

Susan Godfrey found meaning in a damaged vintage figurine. "I saw he was an old football player with a hurt hand and I wanted to honor him as such," she says. "I spent an evening with a successful pro player once when I was young and he expressed his fear of injury and losing everything he had worked so hard for. It made an impression on me." The resulting box collage is named Football Man, and the damaged hero is not glassed in. "So he can breathe," says Godfrey.

Each of these other creative works has its own story, and beauty is in the eye of the beholder, they say. So behold.

Pete Maravich Art Card: The bizarre arm angle on Pistol might explain how he was able to do some of the amazing things he did with a basketball.

Hockey Robot Print: Scroll down to see the image. It's like Rosie the Robot from the Jetson's meets Sidney Crosby. Strangely compelling.

Zinedine Zidane Pop Art Painting: The eyes follow you wherever you go. It's like he's sizing you up for the old head butt to the sternum. Creepy.

Wimbledon Tennis Courts painting: This is actual fine art by Impressionist Hall Groat, Sr. The price tag alone will tell you that. What it's doing on eBay, we have no idea.

Cubist Tennis Player: Can a cubist player win at the Impressionist Wimbledon seen above? Sure, as long as he's not Ivan Lendl—he never won Wimbledon in any artistic genre.

Color Scribble Golfer: It took us a while to figure out the weird posture on the figure in this print. But when we saw the putter in his hand, we realized he was trying to will the ball into the cup using body English.

Basketball Skeletons Gothic Print: It's like Halloween at Vince Carter's crib. Read the artist's bio for a special treat.

Dirt Court Basketball Painting: We actually really like this one. Sports are not the primary subject of Mississippi painter HC Porter. Her paintings are about capturing life in the deep south, and illustrating dirt court basketball just happens to be one way to draw that out.

Hey, they can't all be Dogs Playing Poker, right?

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