Show Synopsis:
Painter Georges Seurat is considered eccentric by those around him in Paris and his model Dot struggles to maintain a healthy relationship with him. George deals with rival painters, his elderly mother, and critics while he sketches and paints what he sees on the Island of La Grande Jatte every Sunday and lives in the colorful world of his painting. Dot leaves him for Louis the baker, who becomes employed by Americans, and Dot goes to Texas with him without telling George that the baby she is carrying is his. Years later, George's great-grandson George, a modern artist, endures his own criticism and detachment from those around him at a celebration of George Seurat's masterpiece Sunday on the Island of La Grande Jatte. He dotes on his grandmother Marie, who has told him who her real father was. She encourages him to keep making art before she dies. George travels to the island of La Grande Jatte for a celebration of the painting and remarks at how different the island is. The ghost of Dot appears and encourages him to keep working despite his doubts of artistic success. 	

Character:
Georges Seurat, an eccentric painter in his 30s who gets lost in his head while he observes and paints; loves his work but has trouble connecting to the people around him and conforming to others' standards.

Song Context:
George looks over the sketches he has made recently, and they seem more real to him than any other interactions that he has had. He misses Dot but believes that his art and creative fulfillment are more important than his relationship with her, or his interactions with anyone else. He looks forward to the day that his work and sacrifices will pay off in his finished product.	

Fun Facts:
1) This musical originated in a conversation between James Lapine and Stephen Sondheim, in which they realizes that in Sunday on the Island of La Grande Jatte, nobody looks at each other, and the painter is missing altogether. The story of the painting's creation became the basis of the production. 
2) Sondheim describes the subject matter of this song as something experienced by everyone at some point, but more significantly by artists: "trancing out -- that phenomenon of losing the world while you're writing (or painting or composing or doing a crossword puzzle or coming to a difficult decision or anything that requires intense and complete concentration)." He described one personal venture with this feeling as "difficult and exhilirating" and wanted to convey this feeling in the song. 
3) Like other songs in this musical, this is a "stream-of-consciousness" song with a sense of spontaneity to it.