OUR ADDRESS IS 12212 MORRISBRIDGE ROAD TAMPA FLORIDA 33637
Look for us at Interstate 75 and Fletcher, exit 266 Tampa Florida Call us at 813 770 4794
Have you ever seen the building on the corner of Fletcher and 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 Famous Tampa Art Gallery
Charlie's World Fox News
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 at I-75 and Fletcher, 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.
Authentic Key West influenced art. What once would have been sawdust spread to the wind, is now what you see here.
Superior reuse of materials.
Wood Source: Aged Sawmill Stock
Copper Hanger Source: Reclaimed Wire
Backing Screw Source: Reclaimed Brass Screw
Key West Fisherman ID Tag Referenced in ARtists LogRecycling as a Lifestyle and a Business
Tampa Art Galleries. Hong Kong Willie Art Gallery
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 Hongkongwillie . 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 Hongkongwillie was born as a
location that offers recycling in a different and creative way.
Hongkongwillie 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.
Hongkongwillie truly believes that a piece, whether it’s a bag or a
painted artwork, it’s meant for one person.”
Tampa Art Gallery
University of South Florida
Florida Focus,I-75 and Fletcher
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.
Indian Dreams - Hong Kong Willie - Original Art $ 4400.00 .
TO BUY Contact Hongkongwillie
Indian Dreams - Hong Kong Willie - Original Art
Dimensions: 23" x 7" x 1"
**University of South Florida Special (Paste In Browser)
www.wusf.usf.edu/SoundSlides/897News/070928_HK_Willie/publish_to_web/index.html
**Latest University of South Florida Special
www.youtube.com/watch?v=tbpC9S-gIOo
**FOX News Special (Paste in Browser)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KrV3Aj85I84
**Best Place to Buy $1 Kitsch to $10,000 Folk Art Best of the Bay Award 2007
Google: HONG KONG WILLIE
Dimensions: 23" x 7" x 1"
**University of South Florida Special (Paste In Browser)
www.wusf.usf.edu/SoundSlides/897News/070928_HK_Willie/publish_to_web/index.html
**Latest University of South Florida Special
www.youtube.com/watch?v=tbpC9S-gIOo
**FOX News Special (Paste in Browser)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KrV3Aj85I84
**Best Place to Buy $1 Kitsch to $10,000 Folk Art Best of the Bay Award 2007
Google: HONG KONG WILLIE
Dimensions: 23" x 7" x 1"
MY FOX TAMPA BAY
Charlie’s World Fox News
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KrV3Aj85I84&feature=relmfu]Black Bird of Key Largo
TO BUY Contact Hongkongwillie
The allurement of the winds blowing in the palm trees and the moon shining through and the “Black Bird of Key Largo” looking upon.
Hong Kong Willie
**HONG KONG WILLIE artist Kim Brown, chose aged Florida sawmill stock as canvas. Recovered Brass Hanger: Key West lobster trap rigging. Originally connects and suspends rigging of spiny lobster traps in Key West waters. Candy-like appearance due to multiple protective layers. Assigned number in artist register by Fisherman ID tag, corresponding burn-etched # rear of piece. Key recovered by Robert Jordan, acclaimed treasure hunter: also in identification of piece and artist.
Dimensions:
24″ L
8″ W
4″ H
Weight: 17+ LB
Look for Hong Kong Willie On Bing
Face Book I-75 And Fletcher
ART FOR SALE MYSTERIOSITY HONG KONG WILLIE ART
$176,000 U.S. Dollars
Hong Kong Willie Gallery
TO BUY Contact Hongkongwillie
Tampa Famous Roadside Attraction Artist
Blue Marlin Dream of Key West.
$225,000 Hong Kong Willie Art
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.
