Willard Wigan – the Ultimate Miniature Artist

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Today’s Blog Post

Willard Wigan – the Ultimate Miniature Artist
Willard’s story may be one of the most inspiring stories that I have encountered for a long time. As an artist he appears to be all alone in what he creates. And things he creates are almost impossible – at least for other people. You will not find many artists rushing to copy what he does.

Willard creates miniature art pieces, that usually tell a story, in one of two general places from what I have found. Either it is done on the head of a pin or in the tip of a pencil… or inside the eye of a needle.

To see what he creates one must look through a microscope to provide the enlargement needed to see the detail that he has been able to accomplish.

His tiny sculptures are painted using the hair off a house fly. Did you get that? One single hair mounted on the end of tool that he has to fashion small enough to see around. The sharp end of the ordinary pin would be far too big to actually come close to the item he is creating.

Now the sculptures are carved. Where in the world would one get small enough tools to carve with? Well from what I read Willard creates his own tools by attaching small pieces of diamond to the end of the holding device that he has created – likely a sharpened/reduced point of a pin. The diamond shard will be one of the finest and sharpest tools that any one could ever imagine.

As an artist that also does some fine work – i.e. my hand carved leaves, I can completely understand the dilemma that Willard faces. Tools are the number one problem, and the number two problem is your own body actions.

My tools MUST BE SHARP and the ACTIONS of my HANDS, ARMS, SHOULDERS and BODY are concentrated in such a fashion that at times I am holding my breath even making one cut. Most of all I must KNOW MY MEDIUM, know the wood right down to the very last wood fiber.

Recently someone asked me how long it takes me to carve a leaf. I blinked and thought… I had no idea. It is as if I travel to another place in time or the universe to make one. Each one is totally unique from the other… a master’s piece created by hand.

But when I found Willard and have looked closely at what he does… I am absolutely stunned by what I see. What this man accomplishes is away past amazing.

Willard charges a good dollar(actually British Pounds) for what he creates. The demand for the master pieces that he puts out is very high. From what I read so far he does a large amount of commissions for many famous people. What he makes is one of kind gifts that no one in the world will ever have.

His prices are around £40,000 to £60,000…but that is not much for 18 hours a day for 8 weeks…that is 1008 hours of steady work.

Some of what he shared was that he actually goes into a kind of meditative state to complete each piece. As I listened I can tell you he does a lot of holding his breath.

But something else I can tell you is… there is no one more satisfied about what he creates than he is. The release and completion that he experiences each time will be amazing. I don’t know a word that describes what he must feel. I feel it each time I complete something that I have made.

One of the notable things that caught my thinking was Willard’s disability. He cannot read or write like other people. He has a major learning disability… that has stretched over his entire lifetime.

I quote from one article I read…
"As a child, he was poor, dyslexic and barely literate and was branded "a stupid insignificant nothing" by his teachers, and so he started to work on a scale too small to criticize, but which would show "how significant nothing could be".

And more…
"He grew up in a Birmingham council house, the third of seven children to a father who worked in a steel foundry and a mother who toiled on a production line. "We didn't have money for toys, so I made my own," he says.

"My first creation was a house for ants, when I was five. I took wood splinters and shaped a crude bungalow and some tiny furniture. Then I invited the ant in with honey and soon," he laughs, "I was a landlord of a colony."

At school, though, Wigan struggled. He was dyslexic and in the Sixties the condition was not recognized so he was branded a dunce. "My teacher said my brain was the size of a pea. He made my life miserable by singling me out in the classroom as a failure.

"Because I felt ashamed, my head was always down and I began to notice things that everybody else ignored - like particles of dust and red mites crawling on the pavement. At home, when the heating pipes made noises, I imagined a tiny person was in there skipping with a rope. The fantasy world of tiny things became my escape."

It didn't help that Wigan and his father didn't get on. "Dad insisted I follow him into the foundry, which I did briefly when I left school at 15, but that year I bought my first microscope for £4 from a second-hand shop and began to make little wood sculptures." End quote.

When I read the words that he felt ashamed and his head was down… I gulped. I remember that feeling of worthlessness. I remember failing some super important exams and being told that perhaps this “wasn’t the kind of course” that I should be in… in fact I remember looking down a lot… and wishing that I was as smart as other kids in the class… and sometimes wishing I was DEAD – instead of failing – again and again and again…

Two of my grandsons were told some pretty stupid things recently by some REALLY STUPID TEACHERS. This GRANDPA wanted to go down to their school and scream at the REALLY DUMB TEACHERS… but I didn’t. The boys are way too much like me… and I went into a FUNK just thinking of the up hill battle that they are going to face for years to come!!!

Willard’s story is way too personal and has gripped me way too deep… and will not let go. I have had a few days to think about this inspiration and have committed myself to carve more leaves… than any one else has ever carved and making them thinner and finer and better and more beautiful than anyone can ever imagine. I will hold my breath more and become the best at what I do.

Willard will never know how powerful his story has been to some us.

A new idea has been developing too. I am meeting a whole bunch of guys that are coming out of prison. They are broken men that look down a lot. They have been looking down for a long time and have seen a lot that no one else has seen. They don’t believe in what they can do. Like Willard, they have been told many times that “your brain is the size of a pea…”

They cannot get jobs because they are still hated and always will be…because of what they have done. But if they were to carve leaves with me… and I took responsibility for what they carved… showing it… selling it… and never having them have to stand in front of critical teachers again… Maybe they could be another Willard Wigan.

Today Willard is worth somewhere around £11,000,000 – yes you read that right… that is almost $20,000,000 USD – not bad for a dummy who can’t do what you do with your degrees and powerful position. WOW!

This is fair notice to you dear reader… The price of my Hand Carved Leaves is going up soon… a way, way, way up. If you want one now… you better get in line at today’s prices. Last week they sold for $100 each…next week or so… they will be more.

Thanks Willard Wigan… for your life and story!

~ Murray Lincoln ~
www.murraylincoln.com/

Source:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Willard_Wigan
http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/lifestyle/article-23782805-the-man-who-makes-millions-from-miniature-art.do
http://www.willard-wigan.com/Default.aspx?AspxAutoDetectCookieSupport=1
http://www.willard-wigan.com/gallery.aspx
http://paintalicious.org/2007/04/25/willard-wigans-micro-miniaturists-sculptures/
http://images.google.ca/images?sourceid=navclient&rlz=1T4GGLJ_en___CA251&q=willard+wigan's+miniature+art&um=1&ie=UTF-8&ei=EYAiS6ruKs3PlAfUpYz-CQ&sa=X&oi=image_result_group&ct=title&resnum=4&ved=0CCAQsAQwAw

Titanic on the head of a Pin

Santa in the Eye of a Needle

An Owl in the Eye of a Needle

Adam and Eve carved in the lead tip of a Pencil