“I come from a very large family and my father is a traditional man. He is tougher on me than my brothers, and maybe that makes me who I am today, but sometimes I just want to get a little more love from my father,” says Chow, who is the youngest daughter in a family of 15.

Chow’s childhood played a big part in the creation of Sad Cherry. A pair of cherry-red lips pout for a kiss, symbolising the desire to be loved and cared for.

Art comes from life, she says, and her work draws from her feelings and experiences. When Chow experienced bouts of deep sadness two years ago, it was the creation of a new character that lifted her spirits.

“I was upset and lost interest in everything. I was confused about my future and had no idea what my next step should be as an artist,” she says. “But hiding these emotions only made them spiral and I knew that was unhealthy. I had to channel my emotions somewhere.

“Sad Cherry helped me to release some of the negativity, but it was still there. So I tried to focus on the positive and started drawing. That was how Love Cherry came about.”

If Sad Cherry is a reflection of Chow’s childhood longing for love, Love Cherry represents her maturity and a new-found ability to share love. Her acrylic and oil paintings are now on show in “Intertwined”, an exhibition at Our Gallery in Wan Chai, Hong Kong.

The characters are two sides of a coin, and Chow says it’s not hard to find such duality in ourselves: “Sometimes, we may be a little negative like Sad Cherry. But if we focus on the positive and have love in our hearts, we can get through anything and everything,”

Chow knew she wanted to be an artist early on. Despite her father’s disapproval, she enrolled in the Hong Kong Art School in 2010, majoring in fine arts. She took on four part-time jobs – as a salesperson and a tutor for three art classes – to pay her school fees.

For three years, Chow led a packed schedule, existing on six hours’ sleep a night. “It’s tiring but I like that, because I can use every single minute to do what I want, and I enjoyed it,” says the artist.

In 2016, Chow held her first solo exhibition, “Sad Cherry”. Her paintings have been featured in exhibitions at the Singapore Art Fair 2017 and the Hong Kong Art Fair in 2019.

When she reflects on her relationship with her father, tears well up in her eyes. In 2017, he attended her solo exhibition at Geneyclee Gallery in Kwun Tong and she saw that as a mark of approval from him.

“He didn’t say, ‘I’m so proud of you” or, “You are my favourite daughter”, but I could see the love in his eyes,” she says.

That year, her father fell ill and had a brush with death. “It made me realise how much I’m scared to lose him. And that was when I realised I wasn’t afraid or angry at him, but that I love him so much,” she says.

During the Covid-19 lockdown, Chow found herself busier than ever. Apart from preparing for her exhibition, she embarked on a new project on environmental protection. She says: “I am working on a Love Cherry series with animals. We share love not only to people, but to animals. I hope to raise awareness about endangered animals like blue whales, green sea turtles and snow leopards.”

“Intertwined” at Our Gallery, 302-8 Hennessy Road, Wan Chai; Mon to Fri, 11am to 6pm, Sat, 1pm-5pm; September 15 to November 21, 2020