HONG KONG WILLIE The Green Artist

THE HONG KONG WILLIE WAY OF LIFE. RE-USE IN SIMPLE FORM. USING RESOURCES TO THEIR FULL BENEFIT. FOR YEARS HONG KONG WILLIE HAS GROWN VEGETATION AND GROUND-COVER WHICH REQUIRES NO IRRIGATION. FOR 25 YEARS NO WATER HAS BEEN WASTED ON THE LAWN OR PLANTS AT HONG KONG WILLIE. HONG KONG WILLIE COLLECTS LAWN CLIPPINGS, OAK LEAVES IMPLEMENTING THEM FOR THE COMPOST PILE. USING DIVING TANKS WHICH COULD NO LONGER BE FILLED, TRANSFORMING THEM INTO BELLS BECAME A STAPLE FOR DOCKS,RESTAURANT TIP ANNOUNCERS, AND TIKI HUTS. GREY WATER NORMALLY UNNECESSARILY DRAINED TO THE SEWERS, IS TRANSFERRED TO THE COMPOST PILE. MANY SIMPLE WAYS OF RE-USE. BLUE WINE BOTTLES DOUBLE DUTY AS PAVERS EDGING THE LAWN AND ENTRANCE WAY. HONG KONG WILLIE LOOKS FOR RE-USE IN SINGLE FORM. LIVING ON THE LANDFILL IN TAMPA AS A CHILD AFFECTED THE VIEWPOINT THAT ENERGY MUST AND CAN NOT ALWAYS BE PURCHASED. FROM NEWSPAPERS ROLLED TIGHTLY AS FUEL FOR FIREPLACES, TO LUMBER SUPPOSEDLY UNFIT FOR USE, TRANSFORMED INTO EFFECTIVE AND MOVING ARTWORK. HONG KONG WILLIE DISCOVERED EARLY KEY’S ARTISTS STEERED FROM CANVAS SINCE THE COST OF FIBER IN CANVAS WAS UNNATAINABLE TO THE MAJORITY, THUS MATERIAL CARRIED UPON YOUR BACK GAINED PROMINENCE. RE-USE IS OUR FUTURE. RATHER THAN DISMANTLING HOUSES AND SENDING MATERIAL TO LANDFILLS, ATTAIN THESE MATERIALS SUCH AS BRICKS, LUMBER AND TRANSFER INTO NEW HOUSES AND GREEN PROJECTS. BURLAP COFFEE BAGS WHICH BECOME HONG KONG WILLIE GREEN SHOPPING BAGS, ALSO MAY BE SHIPPED TO FLOUR COMPANYS, FEED PROCESSORS, THUS BEING REUSED MANY TIMES OVER THEIR INTENDED LIFESPANS. HONG KONG WILLIE ART, BUOYS; WEATHERED BUOYS HAVING FELT NATURES PUMMELING, STILL TO THIS DAY ARE IMPLEMENTED FOR A MULTITUDE OF USES. LAST WEEK A GENTLEMAN PURCHASED A BUOY TO IDENTIFY A SUBMERGED PIPE IN HIS LAKE. HONG KONG WILLIE ALWAYS LOOKING TO REUSE MANY OBJECTS IN SINGLE FORM. WE ALL HAVE THE ABILITY TO LEAVE LESS OF A FOOTPRINT ON THE WORLD. UNTIL NEXT TIME, HONG KONG WILLIE SAYS: WE ALL HAVE A PURPOSE.

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