Personal shrines- My Monthly Journal Quilt

One of those resolutions of mine was to do a monthly quilt, in a larger format.

I love this painting, Beata Beatrix by Dante Gabriel Rosetti, who painted 6 versions of this, with one copy being painted by a contemporary. I have seen 3 of the paintings and the copy. I have 3 left to see before I die, one of those things on the “bucket list”… as it were.

This version started it all, and is the last painted, and had to be completed by Ford Maddox Brown, and is here in Chicago, at the Art Institute. I have two other works using it. They are all in my personal collection, one of which is an actual shrine-type-thing. I don’t mean to use the work in a “breaking copyright” sense, I just love it so much, I can’t help it.

I believe in personal shrines made of similar things. I have lots of “collections” of stuff, ever so arranged to make me smile when I see them. There was a book long ago called something like “personal altars” that discussed this sort of collecting and arranging, and religion was not really part of it. I guess that’s why I keep going back to the painting and including it in my work. I could never own the original, so I keep copies of it in my personal works, like a shrine to art.

Muppin Author