Do you know the expression 'through the eye of a needle'?
Well, you’re going to read about an artist whose work is so small and so tiny, that it all fits in the eye of a needle.
It’s minute – that means really small.
Read on!
This lesson contains 4 steps and an evaluation.
Work them through step by step.
Step
Activity
Introduction
Find out what you already know.
Step 1
Watching
Recognize famous pictures.
Step 2
Reading
Pictures, questions and text of an artist creating very small pieces of art.
Step 3
Listening
Questions and a video of an interview with this artist. Fill in missing words in the transcript.
Step 4
Task
You like to have a piece of small artwork composed by Willard. Write him a letter and explain your intentions.
De onderstaande antwoorden moet je zelf nakijken; vergelijk jouw antwoorden met de goede
antwoorden, en geef aan in welke mate jouw antwoorden correct zijn.
What do they all have in common? What are they called together?
They called together: The seven old wonders of the ancient world.
The only one remaining is the Great Pyramid of Giza.
The eight wonder?
Following in the tradition of this classical 'seven old wonders list', modern people and organizations have made their own lists of wonderful things ancient and modern.
Below an example of a list of Minute art artists.
Can the work of one of them be described as the eight wonder of the world?
Reading
You are going to read about an artist whose work has been described as the ‘eighth wonder of the world’.
Here is are some impressions of his work.
Do you agree: can this work be describes as 'the eight wonder of the world'?
Why do you think they are so incredible?
How do you think that an artist creates these very small pieces of art?
He needs to be patience, and he will need creativity.
Now read the article.
Interview: Willard Wigan
Thursday 2nd April 2015 To Wolverhampton artist, Willard Wigan, size really does matter.
His mother always told him the smaller his work got, the bigger his name would be. And now Willard Wigan’s work is widely recognised as an eighth wonder of the world. In pictures they appear to defy physics, but viewing them up close can leave you speechless.
And you have to look really close – under a microscope in fact – to appreciate Willard’s intricately detailed micro sculptures. But where did it all begin for this world-famous artist? “I remember I had an argument with my mum when I was five, so I went out to the shed in my garden to get away,” he said. “Then my dog Max came along and starting digging a hole. I saw all these ants emerge and I thought, they need a home now. So I decided to build them one. “I used my dad’s razor blade to cut tiny pieces of wood and I made houses and furniture for the ants,” the 57-year-old recalled.
This event sparked Willard’s love affair for making objects of all shapes and small sizes. Willard’s mother was a key figure in encouraging his artwork early on. Willard said: “My mother always told me, the smaller my work got, the bigger my name would be. Every time I created a piece of work, she would always say that’s too big, which encouraged me to keep making things even smaller.” His smallest piece of artwork has been recognised as a Guinness World Record. It is just one-and-a-half microns across, ‘about the size of a blood cell’, which is of a motorbike, made from gold fragments, inside a human hair. So for Willard, good things come in small packages. But just how does the self-taught artist make his work so small?
“I make my work between heartbeats. I have to use micro tools to create my sculptures, such as tiny shards of diamonds. “I even have to break down the paint molecules that I use. I’ll paint with a fly’s hair or an eyelash. When I work I stay away from caffeine and anything else that will affect my heart rate. I prefer to work at night when there is minimal noise and vibration disruption from the outside traffic,” he said. Willard enters a meditative state under the microscope, which he has perfected over many years. He slows his heartbeat down and works between every pulse, enabling him to control his body movements and hand gestures. On average, each micro sculpture will take him eight weeks to create. But Willard admits he never enjoys the making process, only seeing people’s reactions to his work afterwards. A lot of his micro-sculptures commonly sit in the eye of a needle or a pin head. Many famous world figures have the Wolverhampton artist’s micro sculptures in their collections. In 2012, Willard was privately commissioned to create a piece for Queen Elizabeth’s Diamond Jubilee. Willard sculpted a crown that sat on top of a pin’s head. “When the Queen is impressed with your work, you know you’re doing something right,” he adds. “She was so overwhelmed and excited with the piece, she even sent me three letters” he added. The Queen had previously recognised Willard’s work five years earlier, by presenting him with an MBE in 2007 for his services to art. Despite his rise to fame Willard, says he was misunderstood by his teachers due to his mild autism. He said part of the inspiration for creating such tiny sculptures was that if people were unable to view his work, then they wouldn’t be able to criticise it. However, now a thriving, world-renowned artist, Willard hopes he can be an inspiration for other people.
“I like to think I could be a testament to people that you can make it, no matter who you are or where you are from. You can achieve anything you want to if you put your mind to it. If you believe in yourself, and you are original and creative, you will succeed. Never be satisfied with what you have done and always try to improve,” he said.
Source: http://nativemonster.com/
De onderstaande antwoorden moet je zelf nakijken; vergelijk jouw antwoorden met de goede
antwoorden, en geef aan in welke mate jouw antwoorden correct zijn.
Dit lesmateriaal is gepubliceerd onder de Creative Commons Naamsvermelding-GelijkDelen 4.0 Internationale licentie. Dit houdt in dat je onder de voorwaarde van naamsvermelding en publicatie onder dezelfde licentie vrij bent om:
het werk te delen - te kopiëren, te verspreiden en door te geven via elk medium of bestandsformaat
het werk te bewerken - te remixen, te veranderen en afgeleide werken te maken
voor alle doeleinden, inclusief commerciële doeleinden.
Van dit lesmateriaal is de volgende aanvullende informatie beschikbaar:
Toelichting
Deze les valt onder de arrangeerbare leerlijn van de Stercollectie voor Engels voor havo, leerjaar 4 en 5. Dit is thema 'Art'. Het onderwerp van deze les is: Minute Art. Deze les gaat over (hele) kleine kunstwerken. Willard Wigan wordt als voorbeeld van kunstenaars genoemd die kleine kunstwerken maakt.
Leerniveau
HAVO 4;
HAVO 5;
Leerinhoud en doelen
Engels;
Eindgebruiker
leerling/student
Moeilijkheidsgraad
gemiddeld
Studiebelasting
3 uur en 0 minuten
Trefwoorden
arrangeerbaar, engels, hv45, kleine kunstwerken, minute art, stercollectie
Minute Art h45
nl
VO-content
2021-06-16 12:36:33
Deze les valt onder de arrangeerbare leerlijn van de Stercollectie voor Engels voor havo, leerjaar 4 en 5. Dit is thema 'Art'. Het onderwerp van deze les is: Minute Art. Deze les gaat over (hele) kleine kunstwerken. Willard Wigan wordt als voorbeeld van kunstenaars genoemd die kleine kunstwerken maakt.
The subject of this lesson is 'Minute art'.
Interview: Willard Wigan
Task
