Saturday

THINGS TO DO IN TAMPA

 
 Famous Key West Green  Artist, BELIEVING IN PRESERVATION ART. THE WORLD RECORD BUOY TREE, MADE FROM KEY WEST LOBSTER BUOYS, SHOW THEIR COMMITMENT TO PRESERVATION. LOCATED ON I-75 EXIT 266 IN TAMPA.

 Artists are to give back, talent is to tell a story, to make change. Reuse is a life experience  



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 Located off East Fletcher Road between hotel chains and high-end office parks is the gift shop and folk art gallery Hong Kong Willie's.Drive south on I-75, look to the right around East Fletcher Avenue, and you can't miss it. The tree appears first, hundreds of buoys wrapped around its branches, resembling a sort of Dr. Seuss-ian Christmas ornament. Then the rest of the 20,000 buoys come into view -- thousands of strands of the multicolored foam balls stretching from the tree to two wooden shacks, hanging from their roofs and walls, and stretched out over the property.

Blue Marlin Dream,$225,000


Artist Born for the Green Movement.
It all started on a landfill in Tamp




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Hongkongwillie  Famous Key West Green Artist 
raised on Tampa city dump,like living in the Penthouse in the upper east side.

















  

 MYSTERIOSITY   $176,000  Hong Kong Willie Art

Gunn Highway Landfill
The Gunn Highway Landfill is located
off Gunn Highway in Tampa, Hillsborough
County, Florida. The county operated the landfill
 as a trench-type facility for the disposal
of MSW from 1958 to 1962.

John 3:16

King James Version (KJV)


 16For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.


New Tampa Patch 

By Tristram DeRoma 

The Story Behind the Eye-Catching Art at I-75 Exit 266 Tampa Florida

Famous Key West Green Artist  Joe Brown, better known as "Hong Kong Willie," makes art with a message at his home/studio near

I-75 Exit 266 Tampa Florida

 Black Bird Of Key Largo   $ 98,000. Hongkongwillie Art

Sometimes, it’s the smallest experiences that have the biggest impact on a person’s life.
While attending an art class in 1958 at the age of 8,Famous Key West Green Artist ,Joe Brown recalled being mesmerized by the lesson. It involved transforming a Gerber baby bottle into a piece of art.
“The Gerber bottle had no intrinsic value at all,” he said. “But when (the instructor) got through with me that day, she made me see how something so (valueless) can be valuable.”
By the time class was over, Brown learned many other lessons, too, such as the importance of volunteerism, recycling, reuse and giving back to the community. He recalled being impressed by the teacher's volunteer work in Hiroshima, Japan, helping atomic bomb survivors.
"One of the last words she ever spoke to me about that was, ‘When I left, I left out of Hong Kong,’ ” he said. After turning that over in his young brain for awhile, he decided to use it in a nickname, adding the name “Willie” a year later.
You've probably seen Hong Kong Willie's eye-catching home/gallery/studio at Fletcher Avenue and Interstate 75. But what is the story of the man behind all those buoys and discarded objects turned into art?
Brown practiced his creative skills through his younger years. But as an adult, he managed to amass a small fortune working in the materials management industry. By the the '80s, he left the business world and decided to concentrate on his art. He spent some years in the Florida Keys honing his craft and building his reputation as a folk artist. He also bought some land in Tampa near Morris Bridge Road and Fletcher Avenue where he and his family still call home.
Brown purchased the land just after the entrances and exits to I-75 were built. He said he was once offered more than $1 million for the land by a restaurant. He turned it down, he said, preferring instead to make part of the property into a studio and gallery for the creations he and his family put together.
And all of it is made of what most people would consider “trash.” Pieces of driftwood, burlap bags, doll heads, rope — anything that comes Brown’s way becomes part of his vocabulary of expression, and, in turn, becomes something else, which makes a tour of his property somewhat of a visual adventure. What at first seems like a random menagerie of glass, driftwood and pottery suddenly comes together in one's brain to form something completely different. One moment nothing, the next a powerful statement about 9/11.
One Man's Trash ...
Trash? There is no such thing, Brown seems to say through his art.
He keeps a blog about his art at hongkongwillie.blogspot.com. .
In his shop, he has fashioned many smaller items out of driftwood, burlap bags and other materials into signs, purses, totes, bird feeder hangars and yard sculptures.
He sells a lot to the regular influx of University of South Florida parents and students every year who are are at first intrigued by the “buoy tree” and the odd-looking building they see as they take Exit 266 off I-75.

For prices and amounts, he has another blog dedicated just to worms.
Of course, many people also stop by to buy the smaller pieces of art that he and his family create: purses made of burlap, welcome signs made of driftwood, planters and other items lining the walls of his store.
He’s also helped put his mark on the decor of local establishments too, such as Gaspar’s Patio, 8448 N. 56th st.
Owner Jimmy Ciaccio said that when it came time to redecorate the restaurant several years ago, there was only one person to call for the assignment, and that was his good friend Brown.
"I’ve known Joe all my life, and we always had a good chemistry together,” Ciaccio said. "He’s very creative and fun to be around, and that’s how it all came about.”
Ciaccio says he still gets compliments all the time for the restaurant’s atmosphere he created using the “trash” supplied by Brown. He describes the style as a day at the beach, like a visit to Old Key West. “They’re so inspired, they want to decorate their own homes this way,” he said.
It’s that kind of testimony that makes Brown feel good, knowing that others, too, are inspired to create instead of throw away when they see his work. He simply lets his work speak for itself.
“Somebody once told me to keep telling the story and they will keep coming," he said, "and they always do."

ROADSIDE TOURIST ATTRACTION

A CAR TO SEE AT A TAMPA TOURIST ATTRACTION HONG KONG WILLIE

THE PICTURE OF THE HONG KONG WILLIE GOOGLE CAR ON A ROAD TRIP. THE TAMPA TOURIST ATTRACTION IN TAMPA,THE HONG KONG WILLIE GOOGLE CAR IN TAMPA AND KEY WEST. MAKES TRIPS TO TOURIST DESTINATION. STOP BY AND SEE THE BUOY TREE, A WORLD RECORD.

TV STATION IN TAMPA





DRIVING I-75 EXIT 266 IN TAMPA A NEAT ART GROUP. THE TAMPA TOURIST ATTRACTION YET AN OUT OF THIS WORLD HIPPIE LIKE, BUT DON'T MISS THIS TAMPA TOURIST ATTRACTION. HONG KONG WILLIE HAS A WAY THAT YOU MAY LEAVE WITH A DIFFERENT VIEW ON RE-USE. PRESERVATION IS THE KEY HERE. NOT JUST THE ONE OF A KIND TRUE OLD FASHION SOUVENIR ART. YOU WILL SEE A NEAT HIPPIE WAY OF LIFE.
Past days have seen famed Conch artists after destruction from devastating hurricanes collect ship wreckage, building parts, car doors, any mass which could evolve itself into a canvas for expression. HONG KONG WILLIE, renowned Key's Artist Collective, gained notoriety only from the blatant choice of medium, and the artists' yearning to remain honest to originality. Every Original HONG KONG WILLIE piece is truly “One of a Kind", no piece is ever reproduced. Along with Burn-Etched Signature, Spiny Lobster Trap ID Tag, and Hand Signature, any validation of an ORIGINAL HONG KONG WILLIE piece is definite. Visit HONG KONG WILLIE STUDIOS located in Tampa, Florida for a true insight into the work. Contact the Artists for appointment @ (813)770-4794 GOOGLE HONG KONG WILLIE, for BLOG, PRESS, and PHOTOS. When you are in Tampa, stop by the little old fashion Tampa tourist attraction. You will find an old fashion true road side attraction. Artists trying to make a living from their art. Refreshing gifts and souvenirs made right in Tampa. Located on I75, exit 266 in Tampa. Look for the buoy tree made from keywest lobster floats and buoys, keywest crab floats and buoys. Souvenirs that are one of a kind. Hong Kong Willie Key West artist invites you, no admission charge. Tampa tourist attraction Hong Kong Willie, a little road attraction started as a Worm Farm in 1965. Artists at Hong Kong Willie saw a bright future for the arts. So for a different thing to do in Tampa; check out Hong Kong Willie a roadside Tampa tourist attraction.