Did I choose the ice cream painting because I’m ready for summer?  Probably.  I was drawn to Julia Jacquette’s 1998 “Marble Cake With Ice Cream” painting because I think it encapsulates the complexities of food and feeling.  Underneath a blue plate with marble cake and a bowl of vanilla ice cream she writes, “I dreamt I felt your skin against mine.”  Jacquette’s current exhibit at The Wellin plays with the same depiction of food with sensual paratext.  Although marble cake and ice cream are not themselves particularly sexy, the spoon dipping into the ice cream paired with the paratext below invokes a feeling of indulgence and taking part in primal urges.  Some of Jacquette’s other images of food are off-putting, almost disgusting in their extravagance.  Food is a metaphor for sex, and how sex is portrayed in society.  Sometimes it’s pornographic, over-amplified, and dramatic.  Other times it’s delicate and sensual.  I can’t wait to discuss this with Jacquette herself!