Discover Hong Kong Willie in Tampa, Florida:
HONG KONG WILLIE BEST PLACE TO BUY $1.00 KITSCH & $10,000 FOLK ART
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.
“We are here to tell a story … to take common items that are not manufactured media that have a meaning.”
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Hong Kong Willie’s
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 $10,000.
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.”
