Tampa Art Galleries. Things To Do In Tampa.Famous Florida Artist AND Famous Tampa ARTIST, HONG KONG WILLIE. LIVING THE LIFE OF USING OBJECTS FOR MANY USES.
Google Hongkongwillie Raised on Tampa city dump,like living in the Penthouse in the upper east side.
Google Hongkongwillie
FUNDING FOR THIS PROGRAM IS MADE POSSIBLE BY THE
S.L. GIMBEL FOUNDATION.
IN THIS EDITION OF "WEDU ARTS PLUS,Hongkongwillie
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
Legendary Recycling Artist,
Blue Marlin Dream of Key West.
$225,000 Hong Kong Willie Art
FUNDING FOR THIS PROGRAM IS MADE POSSIBLE BY THE
S.L. GIMBEL FOUNDATION.
IN THIS EDITION OF "WEDU ARTS PLUS,Hongkongwillie
The tremendous success of Weird Florida: Roads Less Traveled, which
has aired on PBS stations from Florida to Juneau, Alaska, has attracted
an overwhelming response from viewers asking for more strange places.
To fulfill the desires of weird fans everywhere, the bizarre journey to Florida’s zaniest places will continue in an all new, Weird Florida: On the Road Again.
The upcoming episode will feature sites you’ll surely want to visit,
like a haunted restaurant in Rockledge where dishes fly off the shelf, a
scary hill in Lake County that thrills drivers, New Smyrna’s mysterious
ruins, and Key Biscayne’s underwater cemetery.
Once again, your guide for this crazy journey is the utterly kooky 10th generation Floridian, Charlie Carlson, “Florida’s Master ofthe Weird”, and joining him is his curious canine, Lady Isabel.
Charlie Carlson has appeared on several television shows, including
Blockbuster’s rental video “Sticks and Stones”, Sy Fy Channel’s “Curse
of the Blair Witch” and in previous episodes of Weird U.S. on the
History Channel. In addition to appearances on television and radio, he
is author of the best seller, Weird Florida, [Sterling Publishers] plus a
dozen other Florida books and over 200 magazine and newspaper features
related to Florida’s past and downright weird folklore.
Weird Florida: On the Road Again introduces its newest star, Lady
Isabel, a full bred boxer, who has an inquisitive nature. Isabel was
just 10 to 12 months old when found wandering the highway in Levy
County, Florida. She became number 086 at the Starting Over Animal
Rescue in Ocala, until Charlie adopted her as the newest member of the
Carlson family. She has a lot of street smarts for having been on her
own.
As a very curious canine, Isabel is a people’s dog that loves to
chase after lizards and sniff bugs. We know our viewers are curious
folks which is why we welcome Lady Isabel as the newest member of our
Weird Florida television family. .
We headed north to Tampa off I-75 to visit a place called Hong Kong Willie. Every inch of this place has art, from the walls, the ceiling, in the garden and even by the road. It is so weird looking it beckons you to take a closer look and when you do, you learn a valuable lesson… to appreciate everything around you.
Who Is Hongkongwillie
BY Casper Yen
During my 4 years of attending USF I've gotten to venture around a
decent amount of local spots in the surrounding Tampa Bay area. These
ranged from restaurants, cafes, parks, bars, and other places of
interest. Recently I got to check out this particular spot that has
always been on mind. If you're frequently in the Temple Terrace area
then there's a pretty big chance you probably been down East Fletcher
Avenue before. If that's the case, then you definitely have seen this
spot I'm talking about. Go east onto Fletcher Avenue and as soon as
you're about to hit Highway I-75, look to your right and you'll see an
establishment with some very interesting art installments around its
vicinity. Just by looking at the photo above, you can see why its hard
to miss. Once again, I had my good friend, Nick, tag along with me to
check out what this place was all about.
Hong Kong Willie
When we pulled up onto the
property, there were no other cars there besides mine. It made me wonder
if there was even anyone around .
The first thing you'll immediately notice is that the majority of the
property was covered in ocean like paraphernalia such as vibrantly
colored buoys to coconuts. It makes you feel like you're walking around a
dock for boats.
We proceeded to walk towards what appeared to be the main building since
it had "open" signs posted around it. The signs led us to a door on the
right side that had a wooden sign with the words, "WE ARE OPEN CALL
813-770-4794". I called the number and before anyone could answer, a man
comes out of nowhere right behind us and asks, "You want to view the
gallery?". He then unlocked the door for us and behind it was a room
completely filled with artwork made by him. These ranged from paintings,
wood carvings, more buoys, and so much more. It was pretty
overwhelming. As we kept looking around, the man introduced himself as
Joe Brown, aka "Hong Kong Willie"
From Hong Kong to Willie
Born and raised
in Tampa, Joe's passion for art started when he attended an art class at
the age of 8. Through it he learned the importance of volunteerism,
reusing, recycling, and giving back to the community. With deep
admiration for his teacher's past work in Hiroshima, the "Hong Kong"
part of his name came from the fact that his teacher was from
there. Later on "Willie" was added to form the catchphrase "Hong Kong
Willie". As time progressed, the young artist unfortunately decided to
leave his interests in art behind with the thought that it wasn't going
to be able to support him in the future. . Now this the part
of the story where things for Joe start to get REALLY interesting. Right
after graduating college, Joe became involved with a project that
helped bring UPC codes to the grocery stores. (UPC codes are those bar codes you
see on products). Sounds crazy right? Who would of known that some
random artist in Tampa played a big role in something like
that? However, he wasn't content with what he was doing with his life;
this led him to move back to Tampa where he spent 5 years living in a
beat down trailer in a forest across the street from where we were
standing. He recalled the trailer days when he would always piss off the
locals by blasting loud music at night and dealing with 20 something
cops showing up; surprisingly, he never got kicked out. Soon it was
finally time for the man to make his comeback as an artist.
So how successful has the artist been since? Well, the highest value
he's ever sold one of his pieces for was $200,000... Holy crap... If
you're able to sell one of your pieces for that much then you're
definitely doing something right. Many of his clients have ranged from
businesses wanting to place something in their stores to individuals who
just want unique artwork in their home. But putting aside the art talk, the artist gave us personal wisdom about his outlook on life.
Hongkongwillie Art MYSTERIOSITY $176,000 U.S. Dollars
Willie Wisdom
Joe
believes that one of the biggest issues we currently face is people
being too absorbed by the lifestyle of riches, straying them from being
themselves. It's no surprise that when you live in a society that
glamorizes wealth that you become tempted to throw aside your genuine
interests to find ways to get rich instead. I've personally had friends
who've stopped pursuing their passions because it seemed to them a waste
of time since it didn't hold any potential to make them money. A
majority of these passions were related to art, music, and dance. It's
sad to think about but as a
photographer myself I understand where they're coming from. Luckily
there are still people out there like Joe who still follow their
passions with zero care about wealth. I've always believed that if you
truly loved doing something then you'll find a way to pursue it
regardless where life takes you. If you find that too hard to do, then
you never loved it in the first place. Joe also weighed in on the issues
of race that have been recently prevalent in media by describing his
personal experiences with it. He acknowledges that as an individual who
physically appears to be white, that it gives him a bigger social
advantage as compared to "minority" races. As a man of Spanish, White,
and Jewish descent, he's had a mild taste of these social tensions when
he once lived in a community of English people.
What started off as a normal visit
to Hong Kong Willie, became one of the most enlightening experiences
that I've ever had. Just the amount of resilience that this man had
maintained throughout his life was impressive. His early struggles
really embody the cliché phrase, "When there's a will, there's a way".
He owes a lot of his success to the support of the community, God, and
other artists. Those humbling words left such a big impact on me.
If
you're ever in the area then I highly recommend that you visit Hong
Kong Willie. This definitely beats a visit to a regular art museum for
sure. Below I've provided more info on how you can learn more about
him. You just never know what story a place might hold for you till you
go check it out.
“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.
