The Miracle of Miniatures

About once a year, we take a trip to our financial advisor in Daytona Beach. Hardly a vacation, but the day is made blessed with a later visit to historic St. Augustine. We’ve seen almost all the sites there, from the chocolate factory and coquina fort to the colonial village. But this time we were in for a treat, a place that we didn’t even know existed: the Tiny Art Museum.

We’d never noticed it, probably because it was housed in the Medieval Torture Museum, which was definitely not a place that I wanted to tour! The Tiny Art Museum, however, was a delight, and we were blown away by art that had each piece usually fit into the eye of a needle or on top of a pinhead.

When we entered the art room, my husband and I looked at each other and then back at the room. It was filled with special microscopes. The instruments were actually needed to see his work. It was truly amazing.

Although I learned that many of the artists who do this work are Ukrainian, the artist I was told about (by the man who managed the Torture Museum) was named Willard Wigan. I also discovered that he had presented a TED Talk, where he not only shared his background and his sometimes-whimsical sense of humor, but also several examples of his art—obviously the pieces shown were enlarged many times over for us to see them on a projection screen.

The Tiny Art Museum intrigued me on many levels. For one, Mr. Wigan discovered this kind of work on his own—his first effort as a child was a house made for ants! He also pointed out in his talk that we tend to focus on life-sized objects, and there is much we miss when we overlook the tiny world. He also shared how some of his works required weeks or months. We learned that some of these artists require several months to create their art.

I was so impressed with the great patience, the artistic ability and the creativity that this type of art requires. If you don’t want to watch the entire video, you can skip through just to see examples of Mr. Wigan’s creations. It will be well worth your time.