using for a mysqli select statement

could someone please direct me to a simple (basic easy) explanation of how to use hyperlinks in a website to display the results of a select statement

To be precise - I am working on the footer section of my website http://www.mandyevansartist.com
when someone clicks on the words 'coloured pencils' I would like them to be taken to the catagory.php page and be shown an array from the database

I know this is possible because I already have made it work by clicking an image - (there is an area in the http://www.mandyevansartist.com/gallery.php page that says 'click on a picture to see others in that catagory')

I have achieved this by

    <?php
session_start();
include 'header.php';
echo '<h1>CLICK ON AN IMAGE TO SEE OTHERS IN THAT CATAGORY</h1>';
$con = mysqli_connect("*","*","*","*");
$db = mysqli_select_db("images", $con);

$answer = mysqli_query($con,"SELECT image FROM images where HEAD = 'true'");
echo '
';
echo '
'; 
    while   ($row   =   mysqli_fetch_array($answer))    {
    $pic = $row[image];
    $link ="" . '  '. "";
echo '
' .$link.'
';  
    }
echo '
';
echo '
';
?>

At this point my footer.php is mainly html (enclosed in an echo'') with links going to nowhere

    

GALLERY
people pictures
romance
seascapes
under the ocean
paintings
love heart series
new works
<!--/footer-one-->

one of the ways I have tried to insert a mysqli query into it

        <h1>GALLERY</h1>';
 $answer=mysqli_query($con,"SELECT image FROM images WHERE catagory =    pencils");
 while ($answer2 = mysqli_fetch_array($answer));    
 $link = <p><a href = "catagory.php?id=$answer2">family portraits</a></p>
 echo '<p>' .$link.'</p>';
 echo' <p><a href = "#" >coloured pencils</a></p>

which just comes up with a parse error - unexpected "<"

I am looking for a tutorial to guide me through this process because i have looked and looked and cant find one