Upon entering the Nicole Gallery, 230 W. Huron St., it seems as though the room is in transition, waiting for the next exhibit to be hung on the wall. A closer inspection through microscopes hanging on the wall of the glass, globe-like structures perched on pedestals reveals that not only is the exhibit in place, but it contains sculptures. Included are the figures of Mount Rushmore, Henry VIII and his six wives and Charlie Chaplin on the edge of a toothpick, in the eye of a needle and perched atop an eyelash.

This is all part of Willard Wigan’s exhibit, “Art in the Eye of a Needle: The Hollywood Collection,” which opened April 13 at the Nicole Gallery. While many pieces present are old favorites that Wigan keeps in his collection, the newer pieces are Hollywood-inspired and a result of the English artist’s desire to make his art increasingly tinier.

“I am not the only person in history who has made small things,” Wigan said. “I’ve just taken it to another level. I’ve just taken it smaller.”

Since the age of 5, Wigan has had an affinity for creating miniature sculptures. Born with dyslexia, he found his school life miserable. He had to deal with much adversity, including teachers who called him illiterate and told him the word failure was written in the dictionary because of him. He ran home from school every day and focused on the ants that lived in his garden shed.

After he decided the ants were his friends and needed a place to live, Wigan began building small houses, tables, chairs and even a merry-go-round for the ants.

While his mother was upset to discover Wigan had been skipping school, she was amazed by his work. In the end, she was Wigan’s biggest supporter when his hobby turned into his art.

“[My mother] said, ‘If you make them smaller, your name will get bigger,’” Wigan said. “From there everything started to change for me because I started concentrating on small things.”

After great success in England, Wigan earned an honor for art services from Queen Elizabeth II. Wigan then wanted to show his art in the United States. Nicole Smith, owner of Nicole Gallery, saw him as a perfect fit for her gallery, where she only features art that portrays something positive, both through the art and the artist. Wigan’s last exhibit was so successful that Smith’s decision to feature him again was easy.

“He is such an inspiration to people who have seen his work before,” Smith said. “We had him here last fall and people were so uplifted and so happy that [they] kept calling me and asking me, ‘Are you going to have Wigan again?’”

The sculptures are made of materials such as Kevlar and nylon, sculpted with microscopic fragments of razors and even broken shards of diamonds. Through his quest to continue shrinking the sculptures, Wigan is now even able to carve a floating fiber or particle in the air, working between his heartbeat so as not to disrupt the work.

“At the gallery, it’s something we’ve never seen before, something extraordinary, not something anyone can do,” said Yuki Suzuki, who works at Nicole Gallery. “Even scientists cannot comprehend how he does it.”

Wigan’s newest inspirations come from creating things that seem impossible. For example, his current piece is a sculpture of Noah’s ark placed at the end of an eyelash with animals walking up to it two by two. The desire to go this small does come with hazards. In the process of creating, Wigan has inhaled his own work and the static electricity from his hands often lifts things out of place, disrupting his work, but he enjoys the discipline these challenges create for him.

As his achievements continue, Wigan thanks the teachers who discouraged him because he would not have realized his natural talent without them. Now he stands as an example of creative success for those with learning disabilities.

“Now my work is my defense because when people see it, it knocks them out completely,” Wigan said. “They don’t care about whether I can read or not. [My work] speaks for itself.”

The exhibit will run at the Nicole Gallery, 230 W. Huron St., through May 22. The gallery is open Tuesday through Saturday, 11 a.m. to 5 p. m. Admission is $5. Children 10 and under get in free. For more information, visit NicoleGallery.com.