Une Bouchée d'Amour

This work, the title of which means “mouthful of love” in French, depicts the angel in the important sculptural group in Rome, The Ecstasy of St. Teresa, by baroque sculptor Gianlorenzo Bernini. In that work, the subject’s intense physical and emotional response to being pierced with a spear by an angel is often likened to a sexual one. Known for photorealist paintings, including of succulent desserts, Audrey Flack includes here a cupcake instead of a spear, allusive of the “mouthful” of the title. She also includes a mathematical notation relating to waves, writing, “I used it because living near the ocean I became friendly with a carpenter-surfer who has done work for me in the studio. He described the ecstatic feelings he had being in the center of a giant wave before it crashed. There is a trembling and pulsating vibration that occurs. Waves can travel for thousands of miles before they peak. It sounded a lot like Teresa to me.”