Highlights 

Shut up & Write Festival 2026 Amsterdam

 

In the time of AI and mind-numbing social media fast entertainment, let's celebrate the labor of writing, and the community we build together on the way. Because after all, we are the lucky ones! We are gifted with this love that will lift us up in the darkest night!


Shut up & Write Festival 2026
We are the lucky ones!

Friday 30 January
Walk in 18:30

Vision board Workshops 2026

Vision Board workshops - I have been making vision boards for years. This year, I thought it might be an interesting activity for you all, too. I have lots of materials, but it is always better if you bring something too, like old magazines or newspapers. It's not just about materials; it's about adding to the shared spirit and setting intentions. 

Up to the end of January, there are still possibilities to do more vision board workshops. Contact me if you are interested:)

Exploring Identity: Culture, Self, and Memories

with Story-telling, Paper Mache Masks & Community Murals

"Tell me a story." 

The way we re-tell a story that was passed down to us when we were young speaks so much about who we are, what we truly care about, the things we lost on the way, our griefs, and hopes. 

 

Using the story as an inspiration, we make papier-mache masks that are intended to reveal instead of conceal, to show who we truly are: the persona, the self. the shadow. Combined with textile art, such as loom weaving, needle felting, and community sewing projects, we weave the personal experience into the archetypal existence, connect to the cultural and ancestral heritage, and bind the individuals into the community.  

 

The imagery abstracted from this process will be further developed into a series of community murals to break beyond the scope of stereotypical cultural tokens and connect people with diverse backgrounds in an authentic and soulful manner.    

 

Series - Word Unsaid

 

The series "Word Unsaid" explores the intensity of human emotions, the desire to connect and to be heard, and the limitation of our ability to reach out and truly bond with others with full emotional honesty. However hard we try, in tears or in anger, with pleas or flattery, we eventually come to the point of breaking when the conversation ends. We stare at the beloved's face, look at it for the last time with any sense of ownership, hoping that there will be one last magic sentence that will save us all, yet it never comes.

The Aching Heart Divination

 

Inspired by the Rider–Waite Tarot desk, "The Aching Heart Divination" is a line of paintings each with a series of 10 originals, to blur the line between originals and replicas. Each paintings in each series will use different colors, techniques and even slightly different drawings but remains recognizable with same design, yet projects a range of different atmospheres and evokes different emotions.

 

Fear of Happiness

Art made by hands and words created by a wondering mind

A strife to overcome the fears of being alive in the age of machines and mass production

 

Art & Service 

Painting  & Illustration

Ceramic

Unique original hand build ceramic art & jewelry

 

Writing

Writing as a way of self-realization

 

Workshops & Lessons

Creative Workshops & lessons for all ages

Blog

The Aching Heart Divination

19 Jun 2025 23:46

Most of the beautiful things I have ever created, came after a period of heart aches and turbulences. It is literally like giving birth, you must allow the old patterns and once safe ground to shatter, and allow yourself to be broken open, eventually from the cracks and wounds, a new life can come to be. It is in the heart ache, we realize that we no longer fit into the old life that we identify ourselves with. A change must be made, we must build ourselves up from the crumbles and pieces, to become new. It can a terrifying experience to break away from the old life, but refusing the invitation is not an option. The old self either shatters from within, or is crushed by outer events.

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Contact 

Contact me for more information

Location

Fear of Happiness
Amsterdam, Nederland

About Agnes Poe

Taiwanese writer and artist based in Amsterdam. A constant gardener.