The Plays
Matisse's Self Portrait [sample]
by Charles L. Mee
[An artist’s studio,
filled with junk,
junk everywhere
a total wreck of easels and canvases
and pottery and drawings
and architect’s tables
and tubes of paint.
Henri wanders in,
holding a cup of tea.]
HENRI
This is what I do every morning
I get a cup of tea
and I step through the door into my studio and whatever catches my attention
that’s what I do.
I go to that, whatever it is.
I look at it and see if it needs a little more red somewhere or a little blue on the top
and I do that
until something else in the studio catches my eye something else that might need a little blue or another tree painted in
or a sailboat sailing up in the sky.
This is what I do,
and this is a perfect life,
and I love it.
I go from painting to painting
and sometimes to a piece of pottery
that I was painting the other day
or over on the other side of the studio
to the architect’s drawing table
where a piece of paper needs a little more pen and ink. I wander.
Taken from place to place by whatever catches my eye whatever feels good.
And
usually
by the time I get to the far end of my studio it’s time for lunch
so I open the door at that end of the studio and step out onto the little terrace
where there is a small table and a few chairs overlooking the vineyards
and my wife will join me for lunch.
Well, let’s be honest,
she will usually bring lunch out onto the terrace, and we will have lunch together
and then
we will make love in the afternoon.
[Singers step out and sing.]
