“As long as you are still breathing, you have hope.”
Barry Yeow, 54 Artist Mentor,
Yellow Ribbon Project

That was the realization Barry Yeow had while he was knee deep in despair about life after prison. He had spent more than 20 years in and out of prison for drug- and gang-related crimes, and his family had given up on him. What else was there for him?
It was during his last stint in prison that Barry found a lifeline amidst the hopelessness: art.

With hand-me-down brushes, dried up paints and used papers, Barry threw himself into perfecting his skills. His waking moments were spent painting and thinking about painting. It was an experience he never had before. For once, he was not thinking about where to get his next drug fix, who to call for it, or where to get the money for those fixes. “My thinking process changed. It was a transformation of the mind.”

After winning an art competition organised by the Yellow Ribbon Project and attending formal art courses, Barry was set on his path to becoming an artist. He took the chance with both hands. With more than 500 commissions under his belt, Barry is now a full-time artist with his own studio. He is also an artist-mentor at the Prison’s Visual Arts Hub, and runs an art group where ex-convicts come together to do art. “I won’t be where I am today without Yellow Ribbon,” said Barry.


Barry does not only teach the convicts painting techniques, he also guides them to paint their minds. Many of them are stuck at the stage of feeling remorseful and wanting to seek acceptance from their families and society, Barry said. But he throws them a challenge, “It’s good that you are remorseful, asking for a second chance. What if people don’t give you a second chance? Are you going to change? Are you going to turn over a new leaf? Your painting is stuck at where you are, not beyond. I want to know: what comes after Yellow Ribbon?”

For Barry, that breakthrough is important. “I gave myself a second chance. Not a second chance to turn over a new leaf, but a second chance at doing something I’ve never done before. All the while, I had the ambition to fulfil a dream but never dared to. I chose to give myself the once-in-a-lifetime second chance.”