Willard Wigan - micro-sculptor

Biography

Willard Wigan was born in Birmingham in 1957 and still lives there but he produces most of his work, especially his micro-sculptures, in a quiet retreat in Jersey. There he can find the peace and solitude essential for creating the smallest manmade works of art in the world, especially at night when there is total quiet. At times he may work for up to 22 hours without stopping to eat or sleep and occasionally without blinking for up to two hours. Willard experienced many problems at school as a dyslexic child and he is completely self-taught. He is able to construct highly intricate and delicate objects intuitively – as Willard says, ‘I guess it can only be described as a gift, or maybe my brain has somehow compensated for my lack of ability in academic areas’. In addition to his reputation as a micro-sculptor, Willard has received commissions from numerous celebrities for his large-scale sculptures created from tree trunks. Understandably, after the stress of creating his micro-sculptures, he finds it relaxing to work on a large scale or to create microfilm aircraft (featured in Handmade 2). Willard Wigan’s work is on permanent exhibition at the Impossible Microworld Museum in Bath – the website address is given in the links section of these notes.