Tag: storytelling

Categories
Quarantine

Kids VT Cover Photography

Look who’s on the cover this month of Kids VT–it’s my daughter, Remy! Its the June magazine issue and you can find it inside of this week’s Seven Days, June 10-17, 2020. We were rollerblading down on the Burlington Bike Path near North Beach and we went through the tunnel. It was almost like an optical illusion and I’m including the original photo below, which I shot with a fisheye lens. I love how Kids VT designed this cover and I especially love the Editor’s Note Managing Editor Alison Novak wrote. Here is only the last portion of it. She fully encapsulated the feeling of this photo. Please read it in its entirety here.

“The cover image of this issue, taken by Cat Cutillo on the bike path in Burlington, resonated so deeply with me because it feels symbolic of our world right now. We are in a bleak place, and there is so much uncertainty about what the future holds. Yet still we roll on, wobbly and uncertain, arms outstretched, with hope for a better tomorrow. That future is only possible if we work to counter those who espouse bigotry and hate. Let’s keep on moving toward the light.” —Alison Novak, Managing Editor Kids VT

Categories
Quarantine

Stay-School Adventures: Spring Cleaning, Quarantine Days 25-28

Stay-School Adventures: Spring Cleaning, Quarantine Days 25-28 from Cat Cutillo on Vimeo.

The swamp next door has become my spirit animal. It takes in toxins, churning them over like a giant strainer and purifying the water. It squeezes the best parts out of bad things — a perfect example of what to do when life gives you lemons.

On Saturday, I was staring out the window, looking at the swamp, when my friend called from Brooklyn to tell me her father had died that morning of COVID-19. I looked at the swamp, trying to churn out something to say.

Earlier in the week, my kids had announced they were “moving out.” They spent the week spring-cleaning their play fort in the backyard revamping it into a “permanent” residence. My daughter got the idea from an episode of Fancy Nancy.

The play fort was like a clown car, filled with old balls, bats and baskets overflowing down the slide. I couldn’t believe how much had been crammed in there. We finally had our answers for where all the lost items had been hiding.

I watched my kids hand off piggy banks and miniature furniture to each other, beautifying their 9-square-foot space with a small stool, a tea set and a handcrafted chandelier made from pipe cleaners, tape and ribbon. They asked my husband to wood burn a “Welcome” sign, then secure it over their front door with a drill.

With every passing week of isolation, my kids’ imaginations flourish and they connect more with their internal worlds. It’s as if the daily costumes are shields, enabling them to create their own realities.

The trash has become their treasure. They even intercepted a tattered rainbow tablecloth on its way to the garbage can. It’s become the portal to their new life.

Categories
Quarantine

Stay-School Adventures: Unraveling in Mud, Quarantine Day 18

STAY-SCHOOL ADVENTURES, Unraveling in Mud, Quarantine Day 18 from Cat Cutillo on Vimeo.

Today I left my kids in the backyard for an unsupervised 30 min. Their matching yellow rain suits have become their homeschool recess uniform now that we’ve hit mud season.

When I opened the door to check on them they were literally rolling in a mud swamp at the bottom of their slide laughing hysterically. Their yellow rain suits were now caked with mud. To top it off I had just bathed them.

I felt something in me unravel and my heart skipped a beat at the momentary shock of how dismantled everything was becoming. It was a Tuesday afternoon and all the rules of normal had been shredded and thrown into the air like confetti around me.

But instead of cleaning up the mess all I felt like doing was admiring the chaos. And unraveling further.

Categories
Quarantine

STAY-SCHOOL ADVENTURES, A Fish Funeral + The Death of a Snowman, Quarantine Day 0

STAY-SCHOOL ADVENTURES, A Fish Funeral + The Death of a Snowman, Quarantine Day 0 from Cat Cutillo on Vimeo.

This is a retrospective: Its Friday the 13th and I’ve picked up my kids from school and brought them to Barnes & Noble to buy a birthday present for a party my daughter is excited for on Sunday. I’m simultaneously texting with my friend who lives in Florida and had visited us just last week. Her son’s school has just been cancelled for at least two weeks.

The reality is sinking in that this thing is fast approaching. I suddenly realize we need to leave the store immediately and go home. It suddenly hits me we will probably be missing the birthday party altogether.

When we get home, we decide its time for the fish funeral. The ground has thawed just enough so we can dig a hole. Shiny is the oldest fish I’ve every known and just this week she has died. We estimate she was 300 in fish years because she was 1.5 in human years. So on Friday the 13th we lay Shiny to her final resting spot in our backyard.

Unfortunately, it is also the death of a snowman in our backyard.  We had built him just a week earlier with our visiting Florida friends. But now with the thaw, he is just a pile of dirty snow with his pipe sticking out.

Categories
Weddings

Hanna & Andrew Get Married at Lareau Farm Inn

On August 18th Hanna and Andrew tied the knot at an extra special wedding at Lareau Farm Inn in Waitsfield, VT. It was such an incredible ceremony and celebration full of fun, non-stop laughter, so much love, inspiration and some outstanding dance moves. The day was extra special because Hanna is the daughter of Lareau Farm Inn owners George and George Schenk. Hanna and Andrew were so laid-back and surrounded by such fun-loving, amazing friends and family. Congratulations, Hanna and Andrew, it was an absolute honor to capture your perfect day! Thank you so much for having me document it!

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