JO WILSON

Jo is a Scottish-born Yorkshire lass who has spent the last 3 decades in China and Hong Kong, with 27 of those years spent on Lamma in the lovely company of husband, Jack.

Jo has a degree in Chinese Politics from the University of Newcastle upon Tyne and an MBA from Bath University. Her working career progressed full circle from teaching, to recruitment, then into consulting, and then back again into teaching as she home-schooled her kids, Max and Kate. 

In 2009, Jo started Living Lamma, a charity aimed at raising awareness about environmental issues. Jo also helps Jack with Sales Dragon Consulting, a firm specialising in sales strategies and techniques. Somewhat bizarrely, Jo also teaches Cantonese and is the founder of the Tai Peng New Village Karaoke Club.

Jo’s first reaction to Vianee Fernie’s piece, Expression After 48, was a feeling of simultaneously falling and climbing. She was struck by the mixed emotions the artwork invoked and wanted to explore those feelings with her words. In My Life in Art, the painting becomes the moods and experiences of our daily lives. What happens once we take our thoughts and feelings to bed? How well are we able to navigate between optimism and despair, or even control our thoughts? Do we need to experience the dark and the light in order to find our equilibrium? What is it that keeps us climbing?

Jo won first prize in RTHK's 2021 poetry competition with her poem Contagion and the prize for the most creative piece in RTHK's 2012 Short Story Competition. She has written two short stories and a play in Cantonese aimed at helping language acquisition and is working on making this material available online.