Rodin's Kiss on the head of a pin!

[matriarch]

This is amazing stuff. You HAVE to see pictures of his work, it's astounding.



Micro artist sells works for £11m


An artist from Birmingham (UK) who makes tiny sculptures which can fit into the eye of a needle, has sold his collection for £11.2m to entrepreneur David Lloyd.

Willard Wigan is known for his painstaking care, working between heartbeats to avoid hand tremors.

Now based in Jersey (The Channel Islands), he was awarded an MBE in the Queen's New Years Honours.

His work is normally only visible through a microscope and includes micro sculptures of Elvis, the Statue of Liberty and Snow White.

Other works include a miniature model of Auguste Rodin's The Thinker - fitted on a pin head - and a model of The Last Supper, complete with 12 disciples.

He uses a tiny surgical blade to carve sculptures out of rice and sugar, and paints using an eyelash as a brush.

His 70-piece collection has sold for about £160,000 an item.

Mr Wigan, who has learning difficulties and cannot read or write, says that as a child he used his art to express himself.

He told BBC News in 2005: "Being a child I used to start making houses for ants because I thought they needed somewhere to live.

"I lived in a fantasy world and I thought they needed shoes and hats."

Former tennis star Mr Lloyd has captained the British Davis Cup team and became a leading figure in the Lawn Tennis Association.

He has sold his branded leisure club businesses for more than £300m and it was at his tennis schools that Tim Henman learned his trade.

The remainder of Mr Wigan's collection is to go on show at a gallery in Birmingham's Mailbox.

Willard Wigan's website

 

[rgraham666]

Cool.

I have this awful vision of going to a display of Mr. Wigan's work. And sneezing.

 

[Vermilion]

Example...
http://www.willard-wigan.com/images/art/statueofliberty.jpg

website is here for those of you who want to look.
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[Vermilion]

Cool.

I have this awful vision of going to a display of Mr. Wigan's work. And sneezing.

I believe all Mr. Wigan's pieces are encased in glass
Stop worrying
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[Grushenka]

"Being a child I used to start making houses for ants because I thought they needed somewhere to live.

"I lived in a fantasy world and I thought they needed shoes and hats."

I'm not impressed by copies of things, whatever the scale (that's merely a technical issue); however, I would love to have seen the ant houses and shoes and hats. I hope the money he's earned allows him to be more creative.

 

[Vermilion]

I'm not impressed by copies of things, whatever the scale (that's merely a technical issue); however, I would love to have seen the ant houses and shoes and hats. I hope the money he's earned allows him to be more creative.

He does little models of Henry the VIII and his wives
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[Grushenka]

He does little models of Henry the VIII and his wives
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I saw that, but why waste time on something kitschy. Ant shoes and hats, that's what I'd pay to see.

 

[Vermilion]

I saw that, but why waste time on something kitschy. Ant shoes and hats, that's what I'd pay to see.

send him a message through the website

tell him you'd pay double to see them being modelled by the ants...
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[FatDino]

The Titanic was red at the bottom?

 

[Vermilion]

The Titanic was red at the bottom?

Kinda rust-coloured I should imagine....

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[FatDino]

Kinda rust-coloured I should imagine....

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Yea...right...

 

[Dr_Strabismus]

My immediate reaction to that stuff is "Asperger's"

 

[Liar]

My immediate reaction to that stuff is "Asperger's"

The article or the stuff he makes?

The only difrference between doing big stuff and small stuff is different tools.

 

[Stella_Omega]

The article or the stuff he makes?

The only difrference between doing big stuff and small stuff is different tools.

Oh, you are so wrong...

In my art, I've been a miniaturist by preference all my life, (never as small as that, though) and I've worked big, too. Two very different mindsets, it's not only the tools.

Yes, Doc- Asberger's is very possible!

 

[Dr_Strabismus]

I work with Rupert, an electronic engineer who builds teeny tiny printed circuits by hand. Sort of reminds me of Rupert's work. You can't do that sort of stuff after a night out in the pub.

 

[Jubal_Harshaw]

The Titanic was red at the bottom?

Commercial ships are all red on the bottom.

 

[DerelictionOfSanity]

It's kind of impressive. I'd go absolutely bonkers trying to work with anything that small.

 

[Liar]

Oh, you are so wrong...

In my art, I've been a miniaturist by preference all my life, (never as small as that, though) and I've worked big, too. Two very different mindsets, it's not only the tools.

Yes, Doc- Asberger's is very possible!

If I could paint, I could easily make a passable miniature Mona Lisa on a square half the size of my fingernail, with a microscope and a spring relay or servo setup.

The micro engineering students at my college does that (or write short stories and essays, or draw comics) on 1x1 millimeter ceramics as their examination task for one of their courses. Their annual exhibit in the library is the weirdest thing ever, 40 to 50 pieces of student art on a surface the size of an average stamp.

So yeah, tools.

Then of course, from an artist's expression point of view, the scale does communicate something. But from a crafting point of view, it comes down to tools.

 

[shereads]

But it's so small.

 

[Vermilion]

He has dyslexia (incredibly bad) and I think that led him to develop the miniature art as his way of communicating. AFAIK he is not Aspergers, but it is a possibility since many cases remain un-diagnosed.
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[Dr_Strabismus]

But it's so small.

Hey, I think you and I might have met at a party a few years back. No, I didn't lose your phone number

 

[shereads]

Hey, I think you and I might have met at a party a few years back. No, I didn't lose your phone number

Hi, Tiny. Why haven't you called?

 

[cumallday]

I believe this guy falls under the category of "Art Brut" - that is, art created by untrained or self-taught artists, especially those who, for any number of reasons, are divorced from the usual channels of artistic and cultural production. The only thing is, this guy's stuff is so small it ought to be categorized as "Art Aveugle".

 

[dr_mabeuse]

There's a story by Borges or someone about a miniaturist (I think it's called "The Miniaturist", in fact) who works for an eastern Emir, who's obsessed on producing works of increasing beauty and perfection. Finally, for the Emir's jubilee, the Miniaturist sets about creating a replica of the Emir's entire palace. He works on it for weeks and then months, and finally no one sees him any anymore.

You can figure out what happens. When they break down the doors of his chambers, there's the tiny replica and there's the Miniaturist's clothes, but the Miniaturist is never found. The Emir quits his throne and sits in there for the rest of his days, just staring at it.

 

[oggbashan]

The Titanic was red at the bottom?

Yes. That was a traditional colour for anti-fouling paint. Many ships of that era were red below the waterline.

Og