HONG KONG WILLIE IN Tampa.HONG KONG WILLIE A KEY WEST Artists.HONG KONG WILLIE A ART GROUP THAT MAKES ART FROM RESUSE MATERIAL. . 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.HONG KONG WILLIE ART made from ship wreckage, building parts, car doors, any mass which could evolve itself into a canvas.
Hong Kong Willie. The name of the artist. In 1958 his mother took Hong Kong Willie to an art class. The name started then. An art teacher when doing crafts out of Gerber baby bottles, made a statement, in Hong Kong reuse was common. At that time he thought this was very interesting. His father had low-land, at that time landfills were common also. The county had told Hong Kong Willie’s father, it was safe, but as we now know this was not so. Something can come from bad to be good. Hong Kong Willie the name came from that art teacher impressing on that young mind that objects made for one use could be for many other uses. Hong Kong for the neat concept. Willie for an American name. So for many years Hong Kong Willie had a life of reuse. Hong Kong Willie saw forms in a different light, His life now was meaningful, knowing this was and would be his life. Art made from found objects, making less of a footprint on this world. Art and art teachers, HOW IMPORTANT. For the ones that have, and the ones who have not. Media can be found. Now 50 years later, we know now being green is important. We need to look at this very carefully. Our children and our world need a different understanding. Objects can be used in many different ways. Hong Kong Willie the tons of objects in his life that have been used, without much change, So for that art teacher what she did for my life. Thank You. I still have the Gerber baby bottle till this day. Hong Kong Willie.
Hong Kong Willie Key West Artist and Tampa Tourist Attraction. Hong Kong Willie: Group of artists telling how to use objects for many different purposes. Looking outside of the box, learning to find solutions in a positive way. Complaining without a solution is like trying to wake a dead man. Nothing is going to happen. The solution to leaving less of a foot print on this earth is left to each one of us. Finding the positive side and focusing positive energy is change for the good. Hong Kong Willie has for many years looked outside of the box. Take a look at the other story told by University of South Florida on ways to change and the social impact we all can make. To live and help and not complain and spend that energy to leave less of a foot print is a good thing.
FAMOUS, Tampa Art Galleries.
Up dated August 14th 2010
WEIRD, WILD, VIRAL, FAMOUS, Tampa Art Gallery
Tampa Art Galleries,Tampa Art Gallery, Hong Kong Willie Art gallery
Artist Born for this time, Lived on a landfill as a child. Reuse Became the way of life. To read the story from the inception of the Name Hong Kong Willie. Famed, by the humble statements form the Key West Citizen, viable art from reuse has found its time. To Live a life in the art world and be so blessed to make a social impact. Artists are to give back, talent is to tell a story, to make change. Reuse is a life experience. To think now of the past and the story of Hong Kong Willie, Why i have to say it was for a reason.
Hong Kong Willie Art Gallery In Tampa, a reuse Art Gallery. Artist Kim,Derek,and Joseph. reuse artist that have lived the life and are meant for the green movement in the world. A gallery that was born for thist time. Artist living a freegan life,art that makes a social statement of reuse. Media that has a profound effect in making the word green truly a movement of reuse in the world today and the future.
trees to an old wooden bait house, along with a menagerie of
surfboards, car doors and wooden sculptures strewn around the yard. This
is Hong Kong Willie’s — a funky gift shop and Key West-themed folk-art
gallery operated by a preservationist/artist collective. Inside the
former 24-hour bait shop, you’ll find all sorts of one-of-a-kind Florida
souvenirs made from recycled materials. There’s something for everyone,
from $1 glasses of “Florida Beachfront Property” made from old
Starbucks Frappuccino cups to worn wooden planks taken from old Key West
landmarks and painted, the latter going from a few hundred dollars up
to $3,0000.
Hong Kong Willie.Famous Etsy Reuse Artist. Artist of the 60’s in the now. Acclaimed Famous Florida folk artist, Living the Life of using objects for many uses. Follow the travels of life
Handbags made from reuse Burlap Bags. Artist in reuse in Handmade Handbags.The Handmade Handbags making a true green statement. Handbags that have a fashion of a hip style.Hong Kong Willie Handbags are a one of a kind handbag that will be a handbag for this time or a Handbag that you will have the rest or your life.
"I am ready to travel with you. Made for you, there is only one of me. This is my story: I am a Hong Kong Willie Hippie Bag, arriving from one destination, joining you on your life’s journey. On these travels we will find a way that more of us change. As in my purpose and your purpose, we are all meant for many uses."
Please View:
USF Special
www.youtube.com/watch?v=tbpC9S-gIOo
FOX SPECIAL
www.youtube.com/watch?v=KrV3Aj85I84
Best Place to Buy $1 Kitsch & $10,000 Folk Art Best of the Bay Award Creative Loafing
Hand Made Bag
Shell: Burlap Coffee Bag
Source: Third Generation Coffee Roaster
Stitching: Recovered Yarn
Source: Key West
Handle, Label, Pockets:
Source: Artist Worn Clothing (HKW)
Inner Chambers: 3
Dimensions:
Length(Strap to Bottom)-23"
Actual Length-15"
Width-22"
Logged in Artist Register through Fisherman Id Tag.
MY FOX TAMPA BAY
Artist Born for this time, Lived on a landfill as a child. Reuse Became the way of life. To read the story from the inception of the Name Hong Kong Willie. Famed, by the humble statements from the Key West Citizen, viable art from reuse has found its time. To Live a life in the art world and be so blessed to make a social impact. Artists are to give back, talent is to tell a story, to make change. Reuse is a life experience.
Hong Kong Willie Art Gallery In Tampa, a reuse Art Gallery. Artist Kim,Derek,and Joseph. reuse artist that have lived the life and are meant for the green movement in the world. A gallery that was born for this time. Artist living a freegan life,art that makes a social statement of reuse. Media that has a profound effect in making the word green truly a movement of reuse in the world today and the future.
MYSTERIOSITY HONG KONG WILLIE ART, Famous Tampa + Florida Artist ,$176,000
A meeting place for the who's who in the world of the Keys.
Famous Key West Green Artist
A short moment of time Hong Kong Willie
The
first time i can remember, The Florida Keys. The long road , narrow
water on both sides. Beach, not to my understanding. Key West, Duval St,
only what tourists see, was my first impression. WOW, that would change
i
received a phone call from Al in Ramrod Key, a Florida Key. A Key that
is about 27 miles from Key West. Al: a rocker, drummer, out there kind a
guy. Al and i met in a funny way. Al living near some small town in
Massachusetts also having this cool place in the Florida Keys. Artist
have this draw to the Keys, Why, Well it took this road to discover. Al
now living in Ramrod, calling to tell what had happen in the Isle of
Ramrod. Not to mention Cat, oh i forgot, Cat is how i met Al.
Al,
someone that, well to say what a friend. Some nights sleeping on his
pool table. and not far is No Name Pub, well there you go, pub, by any
other name spells trouble. Well contrary to your disbelief, what a place
of history. This is where it begins.or When its begins.
This once remote Key, NO NAME KEY,NO NAME PUB, remote, to say the least, pub , when seeing the place, everything you can believe, and more, just from the appearance. Now no matter what you have heard second thoughts still occur.. Its still time turn around, not to night. The Rainbow Trail by Zane Grey, was spoken here, my first exposure to the days of Zane Grey, oh I'm getting ahead of myself. No Name Pub, a Zayne Grey second office in the Keys, later to be one of mine. No Name Pub, the history, the wild west, well, great writers, why they come here, No Name Pub. Real artist, Real Treasure hunters, Fisherman, and the trade no one saw, all came. No one made a big deal who came or left.
It was part of the beginning for the art support. A meeting place for the who's who in the world of the Keys. Egos left a the door. Appreciating that you did not get lost in that world . Artist that had made it and willing to give you support. . This was a place that I will always remember for the time I sharpen my artist skills..
BY SOHINI LAHIRI Growing up in Tampa, I spent a period of time fascinated by a quirky,
eye-catching landmark at Fletcher Avenue and Interstate 75. This was
also the period of time I spent obsessed with making binoculars out of
toilet paper rolls and necklaces out of pop tops. To me, this sight was
the epitome of similar creative craziness, and I often found myself
looking for it during car journeys, hoping it hadn’t disappeared
overnight. But time passes and so does the urge for pop-top necklaces, and
observant eyes don’t notice the same sights. It wasn’t until recently
that I once again took note of the scene, with its broken down orange
helicopter, a tree made of what seems to be indestructible balloons and a
blue-and-white house covered with trash remade into art. It’s the home of Famous Florida Artist Hong Kong Willie. I finally paid a visit to this art gallery after many years of
wondering about the story behind it. The pavement leading to the door is
painted with handprints and splatters, the store edged with upside down
Coke bottles. Streams of lobster buoys hang from the roof and also make
up the “tree” I marveled at so often from my car window. Various shoes, bottles, clocks and signs are glued to the side of the
store, and there’s a tribute to Sept. 11 off to the side. No one seemed
to be home, so I called the number on the “WE’RE OPEN” sign, which
brought a middle-aged man in a bright Hawaiian shirt from behind the
store. After a few basic questions, Joe Brown begins to open up about the history surrounding his art. Brown, better known as Hong Kong Willie, says he was an artist from the
start. “Everyone is born an artist,” he said. “However some are granted
the gift of being able to express that art.” As a young boy, his mother decided to send him to art school, which he says changed the course of his life forever. At the age of 8, Brown recalls being heavily influenced by the lessons,
which included transforming a Gerber baby bottle, something with no
real value, into a piece of art. His teacher had spent an enormous
amount of time and effort in Hiroshima, Japan, helping those affected by
the atomic bombs. Brown learned many lessons about recycling from this
teacher, who had come from Hong Kong. Brown added an American name,
Willie, to Hong Kong for his nickname Hong Kong Willie. While Brown grew up to be an artist, he left the world of mainstream art to return to his background in technology. “But on Nov. 13th, 1981 … on a Friday at 1:30 in the afternoon, I had
an epiphany,” Brown says. “I was at a friend’s house right across the
street,” pausing to point at a row of apartments across from his store,
“and a series of events led me to rejoin the art world.” With the help of two other artists, Brown set up his business in the
Florida Keys in the early 1980s, then moved it to Tampa. Together, they
believed that they were predestined for the Green Movement, and have
been making art out of recyclables for close to 30 years. How’s business? He smiles. “It’s pretty wild.” Inside, Hong Kong Willie’s art includes glossy pieces of driftwood
restored and painted with beautiful landscapes and kernels of truth,
some of the gorgeous work priced in the six figures. But there’s also a
wide collection of handmade bags, wooden sculptures and sassy bracelets
for more moderate prices. A portion of the proceeds go to benefit the Green Movement, Brown says. With a laid-back swagger, Brown continues. “We live pretty minimally.
And all the funds we get from donations and our art sales are delegated
to green projects.” I’m not sure what I was expecting when I decided to visit Hong Kong
Willie. Certainly not the breathtaking art inside, and definitely not
the history behind it. I’m feeling thick-headed for not visiting years
ago, and say so. Brown offers a last bit of insight: “I’m a big believer in predestination and timing. If someone is not
ready to view art, the door is closed. Every piece of art that is made,
and every project we do is done for a reason. It doesn’t matter if that
reason shows up the next day, or walks in six years later; every piece
of art will find a home.”
Reuse Became the way of life. To Live a life in the art world
and be so blessed to make a social impact. Artists are to give back,
talent is to tell a story, to make change. Reuse is a life experience
The
first time i can remember, The Florida Keys. The long road , narrow
water on both sides. Beach, not to my understanding. Key West, Duval St,
only what tourists see, was my first impression. WOW, that would change
i
received a phone call from Al in Ramrod Key, a Florida Key. A Key that
is about 27 miles from Key West. Al: a rocker, drummer, out there kind a
guy. Al and i met in a funny way. Al living near some small town in
Massachusetts also having this cool place in the Florida Keys. Artist
have this draw to the Keys, Why, Well it took this road to discover. Al
now living in Ramrod, calling to tell what had happen in the Isle of
Ramrod. Not to mention Cat, oh i forgot, Cat is how i met Al.
Al,
someone that, well to say what a friend. Some nights sleeping on his
pool table. and not far is No Name Pub, well there you go, pub, by any
other name spells trouble. Well contrary to your disbelief, what a place
of history. This is where it begins.or When its begins.
This once remote Key, NO NAME KEY,NO NAME PUB, remote, to say the least, pub , when seeing the place, everything you can believe, and more, just from the appearance. Now no matter what you have heard second thoughts still occur.. Its still time turn around, not to night. The Rainbow Trail by Zane Grey, was spoken here, my first exposure to the days of Zane Grey, oh I'm getting ahead of myself. No Name Pub, a Zayne Grey second office in the Keys, later to be one of mine. No Name Pub, the history, the wild west, well, great writers, why they come here, No Name Pub. Real artist, Real Treasure hunters, Fisherman, and the trade no one saw, all came. No one made a big deal who came or left.
It was part of the beginning for the art support. A meeting place for the who's who in the world of the Keys. Egos left a the door. Appreciating that you did not get lost in that world . Artist that had made it and willing to give you support. . This was a place that I will always remember for the time I sharpen my artist skills..
Hongkongwillie Art MYSTERIOSITY .
Many artists don’t produce more than one great, great,
great piece. And Miriosity, she just has all of those elements…
Miriosity has a great future.”
“Somebody once told me to keep telling the story and they will keep coming,.
“My father understood why he was here. And he made that
of great importance to his children… My father gave me the understanding
of why we were here And to be determined to find that.”
In today’s fast-paced society, teaching of such life
lessons has become rare. People are more motivated to “get famous and
get money.
“I’m here just to exemplify and maximize why I’m here. That’s probably the greatest thing that I think is missed in families.
The first time i can remember, The Florida Keys. The long road , narrow water on both sides. Beach, not to my understanding. Key West, Duval St, only what tourists see, was my first impression. WOW, that would change
i received a phone call from Al in Ramrod Key, a Florida Key. A Key that is about 27 miles from Key West. Al: a rocker, drummer, out there kind a guy. Al and i met in a funny way. Al living near some small town in Massachusetts also having this cool place in the Florida Keys. Artist have this draw to the Keys, Why, Well it took this road to discover. Al now living in Ramrod, calling to tell what had happen in the Isle of Ramrod. Not to mention Cat, oh i forgot, Cat is how i met Al.
Al, someone that, well to say what a friend. Some nights sleeping on his pool table. and not far is No Name Pub, well there you go, pub, by any other name spells trouble. Well contrary to your disbelief, what a place of history. This is where it begins.or When its begins.
This once remote Key, NO NAME KEY,NO NAME PUB, remote, to say the least, pub , when seeing the place, everything you can believe, and more, just from the appearance. Now no matter what you have heard second thoughts still occur.. Its still time turn around, not to night. The Rainbow Trail by Zane Grey, was spoken here, my first exposure to the days of Zane Grey, oh I'm getting ahead of myself. No Name Pub, a Zayne Grey second office in the Keys, later to be one of mine. No Name Pub, the history, the wild west, well, great writers, why they come here, No Name Pub. Real artist, Real Treasure hunters, Fisherman, and the trade no one saw, all came. No one made a big deal who came or left.
It was part of the beginning for the art support. A meeting place for the who's who in the world of the Keys. Egos left a the door. Appreciating that you did not get lost in that world . Artist that had made it and willing to give you support. . This was a place that I will always remember for the time I sharpen my artist skills..
You know you have seen it.
Whether you know it as “the Christmas tree” or the “art station,” Hong
Kong Willie’s is a spectacular, unique sight.
Seated in the corner of Morris Bridge and I-75, Hong Kong
Willie’s is a gallery where many unique pieces of art are displayed and
sold.
Always seeing this place on our way to school, former
Editor-in-Chief Pankti Mehta and I had wondered about it for a long
time. At the beginning of this summer, we decided to go there and find
out.
As we walked into the blue shack, we were greeted by a
friendly face. Wearing a blue Hawaiian shirt and khaki shorts, and with
his hair pulled back into a ponytail, Joe Brown, or more commonly known
as Hong Kong Willie, welcomed us and shared with us the story of his
life.
Hong Kong Willie is an artist who finds the meaning in
what others would deem as “junk” items. His journey began in his
childhood when he collected discarded items from the landfill where he
lived and sold them.
“By the time I was eight years old, I was walking around with hundreds of dollars in my pockets,” Brown said.
He had never thought he would enter the realm of art, but
his mother knew otherwise. She was the one who made him to go to art
school.
“My mother believed that if you were born to do something, you were to do that,” he said.
At art school, he met the person who would inspire his
nickname. His art teacher explained the importance and meaning behind
insignificant, common items to her students. She had gone to Hiroshima
shortly after the atomic bomb had been dropped, and then had left out of
Hong Kong. Her inspirational story was the reason Brown nicknamed
himself Hong Kong Willie.
When he was in college, the technological industry was
booming, with many new innovations coming out in different areas of
society. Brown decided to step into it. However, after being in the
technological industry for a while, Brown went through a realization:
“I just wasn’t made up for that.”
Knowing that the technological world was filled with
greed, Brown decided to step out of it in 1981. He knew that his life’s
calling was to be artist, and he was going to be just that.
“We are here to tell a story … to take common items that are not manufactured media that have a meaning.”
He set up his station first in the Florida Keys, but then moved to Tampa, where he has now been living for 37 years.
A firm believer in predestination, Brown explains that he got these beliefs from his father.
“My father understood why he was here. And he made that
of great importance to his children… My father gave me the understanding
of why we were here And to be determined to find that.”
In today’s fast-paced society, teaching of such life
lessons has become rare. People are more motivated to “get famous and
get money,” as Brown put it.
“I’m here just to exemplify and maximize why I’m here. That’s probably the greatest thing that I think is missed in families.”
Hong Kong Willie also explained one of his special
pieces to us, which was called Miriosity. Shaped like a bird, Brown used
the embedded frailties within the wood to bring out the meaning in the
piece.
“Many artists don’t produce more than one great, great,
great piece. And Miriosity, she just has all of those elements…
Miriosity has a great future.”
MYSTERIOSITY HONG KONG WILLIE ART, Famous Tampa + Florida Artist ,$176,000
Hong Kong Willie has supporters who come into his
gallery and buy many of his pieces. With the money that he makes, he
gives back a large portion to various social projects. His art is not
just a business, and he makes that very clear.
“You can only buy a piece of art if you have fallen in
love with it,” he said. He recalled a time when he turned down a buyer
from buying some of his works because he knew the reason for buying
those works was not genuine.
Hong Kong Willie keeps the presence of art alive in
today’s society. Wherever his art goes, a piece of him will forever be
with each piece. We are very grateful for his time and his dedication to
his work.
Recycling as a Lifestyle and a Business TAMPA,
Fla. – Have you ever seen the building on the corner of Fletcher and
I-75 with a bunch of buoys strung everywhere? This small business that
many think is an old bait n’ tackle shop is actually Famous Florida
Artist Hong Kong Willie.
Derek
Brown, 26, and his family own and operate Hong Kong Willie. The little
shop specializes in preservation art. The artists don’t take
preservation too lightly either.
“99 percent of everything that has gone into a piece of art has been recycled and reused,” Brown said.
Just as unique as the art is, so is the company’s name. Brown says the name was created by his father, Joe Brown, in the 1950s.
“My
father being in an art class, being affected by a teacher, they were
melting Gerber baby food bottles," Brown said. "The teacher interjected
that Hong Kong had a great reuse and recycling program even then.”
Brown's
father then took that concept and later added the Americanized name
Willie to the end. And that's how Hong Kong Willie was born as a
location that offers recycling in a different and creative way.
Hong
Kong Willie artists are what are known as freegans. Freegans are less
concerned with materialistic things and more concerned about reducing
consumption to lessen the footprint humans leave on this planet.
“I’m
sure everyone has their own perception of a freegan, possibly jumping
into a dumpster or picking up something on the side of the road,” Brown
said. “There [are] people who will have excess. There [are] also things
that can be trash to one man, but art or a prize to another man.”
Brown
and his family carry this practice through to their art. It’s his
family’s way of life, turning trash, which would otherwise fill up
landfills, into an art form.
The
Brown family gets a lot of their inspiration for their art from the
Florida Keys. In fact, this is where the deluge of buoys wrapping around
the ‘Buoys Tree’ came from, the fishermen of Key West.
“It
is Styrofoam, we understand that it does not degrade, but to blame the
fishermen for their livelihood wouldn’t be correct, instead we find a
usage for those,” Brown said.
Brown
said there’s a usage for everything, even the hooks to hold the painted
driftwood, which are also salvaged, to the wall are old bent forks.
Everything’s reused here. Purses made out of old coffee bean sacks to
“kitschy,” as Brown described it, jewelry made from old baseballs.
“Hong Kong Willie truly believes that a piece, whether it’s a bag or a painted artwork, it’s meant for one person.”
Business more than kitsch, Famous Tampa Artist
NORTH TAMPA -- Passers-by traveling south on Interstate 75 at Fletcher Avenue might wonder: 'What's up with the lobster buoys?' Strings
of the colorful floats adorn Hong Kong Willie, a roadside business with
roots in a northwest Hillsborough County landfill and the garbage dumps
of Hong Kong. Poised
among chain businesses common at interstate interchanges, Hong Kong
Willie sells Florida-centric art, artifacts, worms and even soil for
gardeners. As diverse as the inventory seems, there is a theme:
promoting a close-to-the-ground, sustainable approach to art and living. The unusual business is run by Joe Brown, 61; his wife, Kim, 51; and their adult son, Derek. The enterprise is not named for a particular person. It's more of a conceptual amalgamation, its owners say. The
recycled burlap coffee bags, lobster buoys and driftwood sold at the
store are reflective of Joe Brown's childhood. As a boy he watched
garbage trucks haul Tampa's trash to a dump on property owned by his
family. "It
really made an impression on me," he said. "It became very easy to
think outside the box and know where I could find things from resources
that were just abounding."
* * * * *
When Brown's mother
took him to an art class taught by an instructor who had spent time in
post-World War II Asia, he learned how artists there scrounged for
materials that had creative potential. "It was a different kind of recycling because it was done out of need and touched the human spirit and the heart," he said. During
the past 28 years the Browns have transformed a bait-and-tackle shop
into a shrine to sustainable art. But aside from a robot waving an
American flag and wearing a "For Sale" sign — and the overall spectacle
of the shack-like store itself — there is no signage beckoning drivers
to pull into the parking lot of 12212 Morris Bridge Road or to wander
over from a nearby Bob Evans restaurant. "There
has never been, in all the years of being here, some massive sign
saying who we are and what we do," Joe Brown said. "Because when people
finally decide out of inquisitiveness to slow down and stop, they've
finally slowed down enough to hear the most important message of their
life." Most
of their business is conducted online through sites such as Etsy. Their
catalog includes crafts and artwork created with recovered material
such as wood from sawmills and the sides of demolished Key West homes.
Kim Brown paints on the recycled materials; her "Eye of Toucan"
painting, for example, is for sale for $8,100. Other featured items
include handbags made from decorated burlap coffee bean bags for $25,
and potato chip platters morphed from heated and shaped vinyl records
for $4.99. The
ubiquitous painted lobster buoys are big sellers. They go for a few
dollars each depending on condition and artistic application. The
Browns travel frequently to the Florida Keys, promoting their art and
gathering raw materials such as the buoys, driftwood and even an orange
helicopter. Joe Brown said the chain of islands at Florida's southern
tip hold an attraction for the family beyond being a source of creative
flotsam. "That is a place of resourcefulness," he said, "because they're not the kind of people to rely upon the government."
It was part of the beginning for the art support. A meeting place for the who's who in the world of the Keys.
Famous Key West Green Artist
A short moment of time Hong Kong Willie
The first time i can remember, The Florida Keys. The long road , narrow water on both sides. Beach, not to my understanding. Key West, Duval St, only what tourists see, was my first impression. WOW, that would change
i received a phone call from Al in Ramrod Key, a Florida Key. A Key that is about 27 miles from Key West. Al: a rocker, drummer, out there kind a guy. Al and i met in a funny way. Al living near some small town in Massachusetts also having this cool place in the Florida Keys. Artist have this draw to the Keys, Why, Well it took this road to discover. Al now living in Ramrod, calling to tell what had happen in the Isle of Ramrod. Not to mention Cat, oh i forgot, Cat is how i met Al.
Al, someone that, well to say what a friend. Some nights sleeping on his pool table. and not far is No Name Pub, well there you go, pub, by any other name spells trouble. Well contrary to your disbelief, what a place of history. This is where it begins.or When its begins.
This once remote Key, NO NAME KEY,NO NAME PUB, remote, to say the least, pub , when seeing the place, everything you can believe, and more, just from the appearance. Now no matter what you have heard second thoughts still occur.. Its still time turn around, not to night. The Rainbow Trail by Zane Grey, was spoken here, my first exposure to the days of Zane Grey, oh I'm getting ahead of myself. No Name Pub, a Zayne Grey second office in the Keys, later to be one of mine. No Name Pub, the history, the wild west, well, great writers, why they come here, No Name Pub. Real artist, Real Treasure hunters, Fisherman, and the trade no one saw, all came. No one made a big deal who came or left.
It was part of the beginning for the art support. A meeting place for the who's who in the world of the Keys. Egos left a the door. Appreciating that you did not get lost in that world . Artist that had made it and willing to give you support. . This was a place that I will always remember for the time I sharpen my artist skills..
BY SOHINI LAHIRI Growing up in Tampa, I spent a period of time fascinated by a quirky,
eye-catching landmark at Fletcher Avenue and Interstate 75. This was
also the period of time I spent obsessed with making binoculars out of
toilet paper rolls and necklaces out of pop tops. To me, this sight was
the epitome of similar creative craziness, and I often found myself
looking for it during car journeys, hoping it hadn’t disappeared
overnight. But time passes and so does the urge for pop-top necklaces, and
observant eyes don’t notice the same sights. It wasn’t until recently
that I once again took note of the scene, with its broken down orange
helicopter, a tree made of what seems to be indestructible balloons and a
blue-and-white house covered with trash remade into art. It’s the home of Famous Florida Artist Hong Kong Willie. I finally paid a visit to this art gallery after many years of
wondering about the story behind it. The pavement leading to the door is
painted with handprints and splatters, the store edged with upside down
Coke bottles. Streams of lobster buoys hang from the roof and also make
up the “tree” I marveled at so often from my car window. Various shoes, bottles, clocks and signs are glued to the side of the
store, and there’s a tribute to Sept. 11 off to the side. No one seemed
to be home, so I called the number on the “WE’RE OPEN” sign, which
brought a middle-aged man in a bright Hawaiian shirt from behind the
store. After a few basic questions, Joe Brown begins to open up about the history surrounding his art. Brown, better known as Hong Kong Willie, says he was an artist from the
start. “Everyone is born an artist,” he said. “However some are granted
the gift of being able to express that art.” As a young boy, his mother decided to send him to art school, which he says changed the course of his life forever. At the age of 8, Brown recalls being heavily influenced by the lessons,
which included transforming a Gerber baby bottle, something with no
real value, into a piece of art. His teacher had spent an enormous
amount of time and effort in Hiroshima, Japan, helping those affected by
the atomic bombs. Brown learned many lessons about recycling from this
teacher, who had come from Hong Kong. Brown added an American name,
Willie, to Hong Kong for his nickname Hong Kong Willie. While Brown grew up to be an artist, he left the world of mainstream art to return to his background in technology. “But on Nov. 13th, 1981 … on a Friday at 1:30 in the afternoon, I had
an epiphany,” Brown says. “I was at a friend’s house right across the
street,” pausing to point at a row of apartments across from his store,
“and a series of events led me to rejoin the art world.” With the help of two other artists, Brown set up his business in the
Florida Keys in the early 1980s, then moved it to Tampa. Together, they
believed that they were predestined for the Green Movement, and have
been making art out of recyclables for close to 30 years. How’s business? He smiles. “It’s pretty wild.” Inside, Hong Kong Willie’s art includes glossy pieces of driftwood
restored and painted with beautiful landscapes and kernels of truth,
some of the gorgeous work priced in the six figures. But there’s also a
wide collection of handmade bags, wooden sculptures and sassy bracelets
for more moderate prices. A portion of the proceeds go to benefit the Green Movement, Brown says. With a laid-back swagger, Brown continues. “We live pretty minimally.
And all the funds we get from donations and our art sales are delegated
to green projects.” I’m not sure what I was expecting when I decided to visit Hong Kong
Willie. Certainly not the breathtaking art inside, and definitely not
the history behind it. I’m feeling thick-headed for not visiting years
ago, and say so. Brown offers a last bit of insight: “I’m a big believer in predestination and timing. If someone is not
ready to view art, the door is closed. Every piece of art that is made,
and every project we do is done for a reason. It doesn’t matter if that
reason shows up the next day, or walks in six years later; eve
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Born for this time, Lived on a landfill as a child. Reuse Became the way of life. To read the story from the inception of the Name Hong Kong Willie. Famed, by the humble statements from the Key West Citizen, viable art from reuse has found its time. To Live a life in the art world and be so blessed to make a social impact. Artists are to give back, talent is to tell a story, to make change. Reuse is a life experience.
Hong Kong Willie Art Gallery In Tampa, a reuse Art Gallery. Artist Kim,Derek,and Joseph. reuse artist that have lived the life and are meant for the green movement in the world. A gallery that was born for this time. Artist living a freegan life,art that makes a social statement of reuse. Media that has a profound effect in making the word green truly a movement of reuse in the world today and the future.
Description
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*Sack Race Bags pictured are representative*
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Recycling as a Lifestyle and a Business
By:
Chris Futrell, Florida Focus
TAMPA, Fla. – Have you ever seen the building on the corner of Fletcher and I-75 with a bunch of buoys strung everywhere? This small business that many think is an old bait n’ tackle shop is actually Hong Kong Willie.
Derek Brown, 26, and his family own and operate Hong Kong Willie. The little shop specializes in preservation art. The artists don’t take preservation too lightly either.
“99 percent of everything that has gone into a piece of art has been recycled and reused,” Brown said.
Just as unique as the art is, so is the company’s name. Brown says the name was created by his father, Joe Brown, in the 1950s.
“My father being in an art class, being affected by a teacher, they were melting Gerber baby food bottles," Brown said. "The teacher interjected that Hong Kong had a great reuse and recycling program even then.”
Brown's father then took that concept and later added the Americanized name Willie to the end. And that's how Hong Kong Willie was born as a location that offers recycling in a different and creative way.
Hong Kong Willie artists are what are known as freegans. Freegans are less concerned with materialistic things and more concerned about reducing consumption to lessen the footprint humans leave on this planet.
“I’m sure everyone has their own perception of a freegan, possibly jumping into a dumpster or picking up something on the side of the road,” Brown said. “There [are] people who will have excess. There [are] also things that can be trash to one man, but art or a prize to another man.”
Brown and his family carry this practice through to their art. It’s his family’s way of life, turning trash, which would otherwise fill up landfills, into an art form.
The Brown family gets a lot of their inspiration for their art from the Florida Keys. In fact, this is where the deluge of buoys wrapping around the ‘Buoys Tree’ came from, the fishermen of Key West.
“It is Styrofoam, we understand that it does not degrade, but to blame the fishermen for their livelihood wouldn’t be correct, instead we find a usage for those,” Brown said.
Brown said there’s a usage for everything, even the hooks to hold the painted driftwood, which are also salvaged, to the wall are old bent forks. Everything’s reused here. Purses made out of old coffee bean sacks to “kitschy,” as Brown described it, jewelry made from old baseballs.
“Hong Kong Willie truly believes that a piece, whether it’s a bag or a painted artwork, it’s meant for one person.”
HONG KONG WILLIE PURSES HANDBAGS BEACH BAGS hongkongwillie's Shop Announcement Hong Kong Willie purses handbags beach bags. A purse handbag or beach bag ,Art of Hong Kong Willie: preservation represented many ways, here for example: Hippie Bags, Green Bags, Beach Bags. Follow the story. Art in itself. Hong Kong Willie. "Hippie Artist of the 60's In The Now". Hippie Artist and Folk Artist, Living The Life of Using Objects For Many Uses. Look at The Travels of Life.
University of South Florida Special (Paste In Browser) www.wusf.usf.edu/SoundSlides/897News/070928_HK_Willie/publish_to_web/index.html
FOX News Special (Paste in Browser) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KrV3Aj85I84
Featured on GREAT GREEN GOODS. http://www.greatgreengoods.com/2008/07/23/hong-kong-willie-keeping-it-real-and-out-of-the-landfill/
The zen of junk A Tampa couple devotes itself to creating something from nothing Published 12.06.06 By Alex Pickett enlarge Alex Pickett ROADSIDE ATTRACTION: 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.
Strewn about the lawn is a menagerie of surfboards, car doors, CB radios, wooden sculptures and painted signs. A 1979 Ford pickup sits in the front driveway, painted with a rainbow of colors, four racks of antlers affixed to its roof. An old stuffed caribou sits in a lawn chair beckoning visitors.
Of the thousands of motorists who pass by this eclectic landmark off Exit 266 every day, few stop in the funky gift shop and Key West-themed folk art gallery that is Hong Kong Willie's. But this is not your typical roadside store selling cheesy Florida magnets and beach T-shirts (although they have those, too). From the moment the owners come out to greet you, it's clear that for them this isn't just a business -- it's a lifestyle.
As I step out of my car, Joe Brown ambles toward me wearing a red Hawaiian shirt and khaki shorts. With his disheveled shoulder-length brown hair and strong jaw line, Brown, 56, looks a lot like Mel Gibson in Braveheart. He ends most of his sentences with "Do you follow me?" and stares with wild gray eyes until you nod in agreement. His 46-year-old wife, Kim, who bears a strong resemblance to Grace Slick, sits near the shop's open sign, branding her latest creation. Wearing large sunglasses, she gives a smile, hardly looking up.
Joe and Kim -- Tampa natives -- bought the half-acre property off Fletcher Avenue and Morris Bridge Road in 1985. For the next two decades, the Browns operated A-24 Hour Bait and Tackle, living on the premises and bagging worms for K-Mart and Wal-Mart to make a few extra bucks. But in 2001, they decided to abandon fish food to pursue the fickle business of art, although they will tell you Hong Kong Willie's was always "part of the journey."
"We were artists," says Joe. "We were born that way. We had no choice. You follow me?"
The underlying theme of Hong Kong Willie's is creating art out of objects destined for the landfill, and while browsing the items, I get the feeling the Browns are trying to make a point rather than a sale.
"Thirty percent of the gifts given will be in the dumpster by next Christmas," Joe says. "Most Christmas gifts will be given because they think they have to. Very few will have a social impact."
Every item at Hong Kong Willie's is either art made out of an object destined for the landfill or products that other companies were throwing away and the Browns retrieved before they made it to the dumpster. But don't call this recycled art. The Browns prefer "preservation."
Recycling implies the material will be used for the same purpose. "If you get stuck in that word, then you get stuck in that form," Joe explains. Instead, the Browns create a whole new use for an item that would have been otherwise thrown away.
Kim looks up from her painting after Joe finishes his long ramble. "We've always been able to take nothing and make something out of it," she says.
Although most people assume Joe is "Hong Kong Willie," he says the name refers to the origin of junk: Hong Kong produces much of the useless merchandise that Americans buy and quickly throw away, he says. So it's up to the Willies of the world -- i.e. the Browns and other conservationists -- to find new uses for the trash.
"All of us who believe what we believe is Hong Kong Willie," Joe says.
The gift shop is a space not much bigger than a tool shed, cluttered with handmade candles, pottery, ceramic figures and deer skulls painted tie-dye style. Joe, who's not content to allow me to wander by myself, darts from item to item, sharing each one's origins. One of the first objects he shows me is an old scuba tank cut in half, stenciled with yellow and purple spray paint with a weighted rope attached on the inside. What would have been a heavy addition to a landfill or junkyard, the Browns now sell as a nautical-themed bell. Another popular item: a used Starbucks Frappuccino bottle filled with sand and shells, and the words "Florida Beachfront Property" written in paint on it.
"Is it really pragmatic to say this had one life -- to have Frappuccino in it?" he says, holding up the $3 gift. "That's not true. You follow me?"
Joe picks up a droopy glass vase -- the result of an Arizona Ice Tea bottle stuck in a kiln for too long. He says it's a collector's item: Only 300 were made and none look alike.
"People really want something that is one of a kind and something that means something," he says, holding up the vase and pointing to a stack of Beanie Babies. "Which one is the real collectible? The one that cannot be copied or the one that is mass-produced just on a small scale? You follow me?"
Most of the materials the Browns work with come from Key West. Every few months they hop in the pickup, drive the 425 miles to the Keys and start looking for the junk no one else wants: used dive tanks, the lobster trap buoys, burlap bags and even old wooden planks from ships or homes destroyed by storms.
In fact, the latter is one of their biggest sellers. They bring back an imperfect piece of lumber, slap some urethane on it and Kim paints everything from colorful fish and birds to old Key West landmarks on it. Every piece is branded, marked with a lobster cage tag and affixed with brass rings or forks with which to hang them. In the building opposite the gift shop, among stuffed animals and fish (Joe was once a taxidermist), 30 of these painted planks hang from the walls.
Customers are few at Hong Kong Willie's, but the Browns say they're doing well. They never try to push their art on anyone, figuring that if someone stops and buys something, it was meant to be. ("A piece of art is a love affair," Kim says.) They count Gaspar's Patio Bar and Grille in Temple Terrace as one of their best customers. Their other business comes from Tampa residents looking to add a tiki feel to their backyards. Among Joe's most popular creations are old car doors outfitted with waterproof speakers. A few Key West bars bought the unique sound systems to hang from their ceilings.
But the Browns are not just content to sell their art to passersby -- they want to live the ideals that inspire their art. The couple is working on getting their business off the electrical grid and powered completely by solar energy. Kim wants to start a coffee and ice cream shop with free wireless Internet to bring in likeminded people. Joe wants to be in the Guinness Book of World Records for hanging the greatest number of buoys to a structure (it's not a category yet). And they're always trying to find new uses for the trash they see lining area roads.
"We're not just sitting out here being weird," Joe says suddenly. "We're actually taking objects and making these thousands of people say, 'What's that?' We're doing it because it's the right thing to do."
His eyes get wide.
"You follow me?" COMMENTS
RE: The zen of junk
Posted by Freegan on 11.21.07 @ 01:52 PM
It's almost impossible to make a living as an artist and support a family. Hong Kong Willie needs to have another job like the A-24Hour Bait Shop they use to have. That is where lies and threats enter the picture do to the pressure to make money. The truth about Hong Kong Willie is right here: Hong Kong Willie
RE: The zen of junk
Posted by Pat & Bob Jordan on 07.02.07 @ 08:25 PM
the title says it all; appropo of Kim & Joe too. Good people, artists extraordinare
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