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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/
