Life in the Fast Lane

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Back in April this year, it was suggested that artist Willard Wigan may retire when we first brought his story to you. However, the case for this mind-blowing, little-known micro sculptor is the furthest thing from that today. Willard Wigan’s success has become larger-than-life.

Merely 6 weeks ago, Willard received his MBE for services to art at Buckingham Palace, where the Prince of Wales told Willard that his work was ‘phenomenal’ — “same day as Rod Stewart was there.” he says proudly.

“Meeting Prince Charles changed my life. I’ve always liked him, but when he told me my work was ‘phenomenal’, it was as if I had been suffocating all my life and now, all of a sudden, I could breathe. “When you’ve grown up with everyone saying you’re a failure, a moment like that means everything.”

In an interview with the Daily Mail, Willard invited journalist Robert Hardman to his cluttered spare bedroom in his small home and presented him with what appeared nothing more than an ordinary sewing needle stuck to a piece of Blu-Tac in a plastic box.

The artist placed it under a high-powered electric microscope and asked him to sit down at the small paint-splattered desk to have a look. What the journalist saw left him breathless.

“People often swear the first time they see my work. I like that.” Willard said proudly.

What he saw beneath the microscope was a hand painted micro sculpture in incredible detail of the Mad Hatter’s Tea Party from Alice In Wonderland, complete with the sleeping dormouse and a card in the Mad Hatter’s hat with a price tag in the label — ten shillings and sixpence.

This art piece — appearing nothing more than a speck of dust in the eye of the needle — is actually worth about $323,000 US and took more than 3 months to create.

The writing on the Mad Hatter’s label is actually smaller than the period at the end of a paragraph. Willard said that he painted it on using a hair from a dead fly.

Many of his works are created from the type of plastic zip ties used for clothes’ price tags, sculpting them with tiny diamond shards glued to the end of an acupuncture needle.

Born in 1957 in Birmingham England, Willard Wigan had learning difficulties in school and suffered ridicule, but today he’s nothing less than an artistic genius.

To achieve such microscopic detail, Willard first meditates to lower his pulse rate and carves with his scalpel between heartbeats. But his work hasn’t been accident free.

“One of the worst moments was recently when I inhaled Alice. I was just putting her in position when I breathed in at the wrong moment and she disappeared. That was nearly a month’s work gone.” Another incident happened while attaching a tightrope walker to a tiny strand of a money spider’s web the size of a breadcrumb. “This fly came buzzing down past the lens and the gust from its wings blew the chap off his tightrope.”

Self-taught, he despises the process to create his works, but loves the reactions he receives. “It drives you mad; it makes you cry with frustration.”

Willard sold the bulk of his collection for a sizeable sum to tennis player David Lloyd 4 months ago. The amount has never been disclosed, but Lloyd insured the 70 pieces for more than $22 million US, and has become Willard’s manager.

During an exhibit in London, 3 of Willard’s finest eye-of-a-needle pieces were stolen — the Tower of London, Jesus and the 12 Disciples, and Snow White and the 7 Dwarves.

“The police cracked a terrible joke about “looking for a needle in a haystack” and I thought I’d never see them again.” he said.

Last month Willard was contacted by someone who found the stolen pieces at a Swindon car sale which were promptly returned, but Snow White had lost 4 of her dwarves.

As Willard tells his life story to the journalist, he said with pride, “I always say that failure was my friend. I learned nothing at school, so I just lived in my own world.”

Willard’s parents left Jamaica in the 50’s for jobs in Birmingham where they raised ten children.

Willard was an undiagnosed dyslexic, always struggled at school and said that his teachers singled him out for mockery. “It wasn’t easy being black and not being able to read or write in Birmingham in the 60’s. But the racism didn’t bother me so much. You don’t sense it so much when you’re a kid.”

One day when he skipped school, he hid in the family shed and became fascinated by the activities of some ants. “My mum encouraged me to make a little house for them, using little splinters and bits of plastic.” he said. “It went from an ant house to a whole ant estate. I don’t think the ants were that grateful because I had to lure them in with grains of sugar.”

Willard held his activities secret while discovering his talent for sculpting. “I didn’t show them what I could do at school because I didn’t want them to make fun of me.” he said. “I just used to sit there testing my patience, balancing a ball bearing on my finger for three hours, that sort of thing. And when I got home, I’d spend hours carving film characters such as Oliver Twist on a cocktail stick.”

Willard moved on to work in a factory, while privately sculpting pieces of artwork.

He later used his skill for stillness to work at a retail store as a live manikin. “I could stand still for hours and then dance.” he said.

When asked if he ever considered drama or dance school he replied, “Never. I couldn’t go to any place where I would have to read or write. I used to carry round a bandage to put over my hand if I had to fill in a form.”

When Willard was 35, he found an empty location in a Birmingham shopping centre and asked the manager if he could use it to work on a large piece of wood. Over the next several weeks, passers-by gaped as he carved a bust of William Shakespeare. “I couldn’t read his stuff but I’d seen pictures of him.”

A man offered him $1000 for the carving and a reporter came to write up his story. “We were talking about my work and then I showed him some of the small stuff I’d done — a ballerina on a pinhead, Prince Charles on a cocktail stick, that kind of stuff. It just blew him away.”

Word began to spread and Willard was able to command a respectable figure for his works.

While exhibiting in Bath, the Marquess of Bath, owner of Longleat noticed his artwork. “I like the Marquess a lot — he’s like Father Christmas — and I did a sculpture of him. He said to me, “I may be a lord but I’m a totally different kind of lord.” Willard added, “I can relate to that. He even introduced me to some of his wifelets.”

While not actively selling his work, he started receiving offers in the 5 figure digits. He was offered more than $35,000 US a few years ago for what he still deems the toughest piece he’s created — a string quartet, sitting on a pinhead, with real strings made from a spider’s web. He accepted an offer of about $34,000 US for his Statue of Liberty in the eye of a needle. His work is now commanding ten times that.

His subjects range from Rodin’s Thinker sitting on a pin to Oprah Winfrey in the eye of a needle and the Beckham family carved on a single cocktail stick. His smallest piece to date is a Scottish terrier standing on the point of an acupuncture needle. But his next project is to create Little Red Riding Hood to be even smaller still.

Willard states that money isn’t his driving force, and lives alone with few expensive tastes. Sorry ladies, Willard does have a girlfriend.

“What I want is for people to appreciate what I do, to enjoy it and say: ‘Wow!’”

When asked what his ultimate ambition is he answered, “One day, I am going to do the Queen in her Coronation Coach with all the horses, too.”

Willard Wigan’s work will be open to a free exhibit on Thursday at London’s Eyestorm gallery. Meanwhile, two film companies are clamoring to bring his life story to the big screen.

Related stories:
Mind-Blowing Microscopic Sculptures by Willard Wigan

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