Slide 1: Microscopic ART
Willard WIGAN
The best things come in small packages!
Some pieces of artwork are absolutely massive and take up acres, while some just fill up an A4 piece of paper. Willard Wigan is one of the only people in the world who can create what can only be described as "mini art".
Slide 2: He works in total solitude at a quiet retreat in Jersey mainly at night when there is a greater sense of peace in the world and less static electricity to interfere with the immeasurable precision and tolerances required to create the pieces. The smallest sculptures can only be measured in thousandths of an inch which is why they can sit, very delicately, on a human hair three thousandths of an inch thick. When working on this scale he slows his heartbeat and his breathing dramatically through meditation and attempts to harmonize his mind, body and soul with the Creator. He then sculpts or paints at the centre-point between heartbeats for total stillness of hand. He likens this process to "trying to pass a pin through a bubble without bursting it". His concentration is intense when working like this and he feels mentally and physically drained at the end of it.
Slide 3: "We are told Seeing is believing yet it could be said that Believing is seeing"
Willard Wigan was born in Birmingham, England in 1957 and is the creator of the smallest works of art on earth. From being a traumatized and unrecognized dyslexic child, he is now emerging as the most globally celebrated micro-miniaturist of all time and is literally capable of turning a spec of dust into a vision of true beauty. Even he is sometimes at a loss for an explanation as to exactly how he is able to create such treasures. He just gratefully acknowledges that he's been blessed with a God-given talent.
Slide 4: On a Diamond
Marilyn Monroe
Slide 5: On a Fish Hook
Cast of Peter Pan
Slide 6: In the Eye of a Needle
Charles Dickens
The Last Supper
Slide 7: Tower Bridge
In the Eye of a Needle
Snow White and the seven dwarfs
Slide 8: In the Eye of a Needle
Henry VIII & his Six Wives
Winston Churchill
Gold tiger
Slide 9: In the Eye of a Needle
String Quartet
The Statue of Liberty
Santa
Slide 10: In the Eye of a Needle
Baby in the eye of a needle
Barn Owl perched in the eye of a needle
Slide 11: "Peace, appreciation and gratitude are the keys to real achievement and lasting happiness"
Willard can create a masterpiece within the eye of a tiny sewing needle, on the head of a pin, the tip of an eyelash or a grain of sand. Some are many times smaller than the full stop at the end of this sentence. Many are even smaller still, with some being completely invisible to the naked eye yet, when viewed through high power magnification, the effect on the viewer is truly mesmerizing. Willard, who is completely self-taught has baffled medical science and been the subject of discussions among micro-surgeons, nano-technologists and at universities worldwide. His work is ground-breaking - partly because of the astounding beauty of vision which challenges the belief system of the mind and partly because it demonstrates that if one person can create the impossible, we all have the potential to transcend our own limiting beliefs about what we are capable of.
Slide 12: On a PinHead
Elvis Presley
Classius Clay V Sonny Liston
Slide 13: Swan
Frankie Dettori riding Dubai Millenium
On a PinHead
Slide 14: Titanic
The Thinker
On a PinHead
Slide 15: On a PinHead
Elephant
Golfer
Slide 16: On an EyeLash
Girl with balloon walking on an eyelash
Slide 17: In a Pencil Lead
Adam and Eve in a pencil lead
Slide 18: On a Granule of Sugar
Polar Bear cub on a granule of sugar
Slide 19: On a Hair
Cat on a hair
Slide 20: On a Crystal
Gold Ship
Chinese Dragon
Slide 21: On a Grain of Sand
Zeus on a grain of sand
Slide 22: On a Grain of Sand
David & Goliath
Slide 23: Willard’s work is an accomplishment of total harmony of body and mind; showing that if one person can create the impossible, then we can all transcend our limiting beliefs of what we are capable of.
Collected & Prepared by Cenika June 2006
