Can art achieve a deeper purpose? One beyond creative expression?
Her answer: Art with heart. The artistic endeavour, she realised, must go beyond creating something merely pretty.
Today, she uses her artistic flair to promote mental wellness as an advocate, coach and volunteer. She uses art to help the anxious and restless heal emotionally and to be calm through painting.
Her beneficiaries include both the young and the elderly.
She shares the concept of art as a prescription, where healthcare professionals recommend engagement with artistic or creative activities as part of an intervention plan to improve health and well-being.
“It provides participants the opportunities for self-expression, creativity, and personal growth,” Ms Ho says. “It also fosters a sense of community and social connection, which is very important for the elderly.”
She is well-versed in the subject, having attained a master’s in applied gerontology from Nanyang Technological University in 2022 – a pursuit driven by her search for meaning and fulfilment after she became a professional artist. Gerontology refers to the scientific study of the aspects of ageing.
That helped in her work with social service organisations Rainbow Centre and Metta Day Rehabilitation Centre for the Elderly, when she started volunteering in 2019 and 2023 respectively.
Her new-found purpose aligns with the essence of UOB’s initiative. “At UOB, (we believe) the visual arts illuminate lives and open minds to possibilities, just as it has done for Ms Ho,” says Mrs Christine Ip, head of Group Strategic Communications and Brand at UOB.
“As such, we have never stopped hosting the Painting of the Year competition. Even during the Covid-19 pandemic, we hosted the awards ceremony virtually for the very first time, continuing to send the positive message to all: The power of art to unify and to heal.
“Just as what Ms Ho is trying to do now.”
Art after a late start
Growing up in a kampung off Paya Lebar, she had, at 12, dreamed of being a full-time artist. It was a move unheard of at the time – and left unfulfilled for most of her life.
Her Primary 6 art teacher had liked a painting she did, and asked to keep it. “I was elated and very inspired. I thought maybe one day, someone will buy my drawing of patterns to do prints,” Ms Ho recalls.
After completing her O levels, she worked various jobs, such as a private school English language teacher, a bank cashier and an administrator.
She married in 1990 and became a full-time homemaker in 2001. She has a daughter, 28, and son, 26.
Ms Ho lets on that her life – from painter wannabe in primary school to full-time artist today – has not been easy. She juggled family and personal commitments with her academic studies, looking after her elderly mother, and spending what little time left painting.
The act of painting can be painstaking, Ms Ho says. Her 2018 POY winning entry was a smaller recreation of her original artwork – where she had painted “millions and millions” of dots that resembled the texture of rice grains, across an 11-metre-long white rice paper canvas. She was inspired by the works of famous Song Dynasty painter Mi Fu.