Rewritten | Jennifer Mandeville

Black vines replace veins,

Tattoos of mortality,

Dipped from inkwell hearts.

This mixed-media assemblage began with a haiku written during a period of personal challenge and reflection. The poem became the foundation for an exploration of trauma, resilience, transformation, and self-reclamation.

Black vines spread across the figure where veins once carried life, symbolizing both the wounds left by manipulation and the personal growth that can emerge from periods of darkness. The body becomes a living manuscript, marked by experiences that continue to shape its story.

A sculpted heart exists outside the body yet remains tethered to it through thorned vines. Representing heartbreak and trauma, the heart has been torn from the chest but cannot be fully separated. Cracks within its surface reveal glimpses of light, symbolizing the enduring self that survives beneath grief, betrayal, and the narratives others attempt to impose upon us.

Paper serves as both material and metaphor. Fragments of discarded drawings and previous artworks are embedded throughout the piece, preserving traces of earlier creative lives beneath the surface. Rather than erasing the past, the work transforms it.

This piece is the first in an ongoing series that transforms original haiku poems into mixed-media visual artworks.