cait weiss orcutt
@caitcameraface.bsky.social
phd in lit & creative writing, mfa in poetry, author (VALLEYSPEAK), poet, artist, teacher, traveler, she/they, ca -> ny -> tx -> oh
Valentines day sweater knit by me just for today. But I do plan to make a Swans Only (swans on swans on swans) one for more daily general wear. 🦢🦢🦢
February 14, 2025 at 5:21 PM
Valentines day sweater knit by me just for today. But I do plan to make a Swans Only (swans on swans on swans) one for more daily general wear. 🦢🦢🦢
Beautiful, creepy passage from Mark Fisher on how mythic structures capture us when we trigger a deeper sense of time. Or that’s how I took this at least. (From his 2016 book “The Weird and the Eerie”)
February 11, 2025 at 6:21 PM
Beautiful, creepy passage from Mark Fisher on how mythic structures capture us when we trigger a deeper sense of time. Or that’s how I took this at least. (From his 2016 book “The Weird and the Eerie”)
Sweet trans pride gloves I made for a fundraiser. 🩵🩷🤍🩷🩵 If anyone ever wants me to make something in exchange for a donation to a local mutual aid fund, bail fund, abortion fund, or food bank, hmu. Fingerless gloves are my speciality.
February 11, 2025 at 1:03 PM
Sweet trans pride gloves I made for a fundraiser. 🩵🩷🤍🩷🩵 If anyone ever wants me to make something in exchange for a donation to a local mutual aid fund, bail fund, abortion fund, or food bank, hmu. Fingerless gloves are my speciality.
This one even seems to do better when I’m gone. 😂
February 10, 2025 at 8:50 PM
This one even seems to do better when I’m gone. 😂
The fact that these guys have survived all my travels is a miracle.
February 10, 2025 at 8:49 PM
The fact that these guys have survived all my travels is a miracle.
We left so early this morning, we were the only ones in the street.
February 9, 2025 at 8:26 PM
We left so early this morning, we were the only ones in the street.
Day 8: Arrivederci!
February 9, 2025 at 8:37 AM
Day 8: Arrivederci!
Our first rainy day here happens to be our last day in town, so we’ve been taking it easy, staying in, playing video games (Jimmy) & crocheting a top out of Italian yarn (me). We made it out before sunset to peep a fancy shop, mail postcards, eat vegan carbonara, & hear a thousand church bells.
February 8, 2025 at 7:22 PM
Our first rainy day here happens to be our last day in town, so we’ve been taking it easy, staying in, playing video games (Jimmy) & crocheting a top out of Italian yarn (me). We made it out before sunset to peep a fancy shop, mail postcards, eat vegan carbonara, & hear a thousand church bells.
I’ve been sketching a lot, just playing around. Here are a few doodles from this week, sometimes with a little journaling in between.
February 8, 2025 at 9:21 AM
I’ve been sketching a lot, just playing around. Here are a few doodles from this week, sometimes with a little journaling in between.
Day 7: The last day, and it feels like time to go, to face the music. Part of why I find Rome so fascinating is that we’re always aware of an Empire’s ruins, of what can come next (& next & next)… Nothing is permanent but everything echoes. History is an archive of the stories we write.
February 8, 2025 at 8:06 AM
Day 7: The last day, and it feels like time to go, to face the music. Part of why I find Rome so fascinating is that we’re always aware of an Empire’s ruins, of what can come next (& next & next)… Nothing is permanent but everything echoes. History is an archive of the stories we write.
Then we ventured into the Pantheon — one of the oldest structures in Rome still standing & still in use. We couldn’t access the app that gives you an audio tour, so we just took it in visually with some help from Wikipedia, noticing details like the holes in the old brick walls & Raphael’s tomb.
February 7, 2025 at 7:23 PM
Then we ventured into the Pantheon — one of the oldest structures in Rome still standing & still in use. We couldn’t access the app that gives you an audio tour, so we just took it in visually with some help from Wikipedia, noticing details like the holes in the old brick walls & Raphael’s tomb.
We left the hotel later in the day to get vegan sandwiches at 200 Gradi, crossing my favorite brighe along the way, then ended up popping into bookstores & yarn stores, spotting Saint Sebastian & his arrows, & getting a little sweet pick me up from Gelateria la Romana.
February 7, 2025 at 7:17 PM
We left the hotel later in the day to get vegan sandwiches at 200 Gradi, crossing my favorite brighe along the way, then ended up popping into bookstores & yarn stores, spotting Saint Sebastian & his arrows, & getting a little sweet pick me up from Gelateria la Romana.
Thinking about disability theory & subjectivity/speculative cnf & Winnicott & the idea that we only become aware a system has parts when a part no longer functions seamlessly — but maybe, depending on the power of collective denial, not even then…
February 7, 2025 at 8:44 AM
Thinking about disability theory & subjectivity/speculative cnf & Winnicott & the idea that we only become aware a system has parts when a part no longer functions seamlessly — but maybe, depending on the power of collective denial, not even then…
Day 6: My view this morning, happily back in the Eternal City… There’s no place like Rome.
February 7, 2025 at 8:21 AM
Day 6: My view this morning, happily back in the Eternal City… There’s no place like Rome.
This city makes Rome seem really calm & straightforward. Which is a feat!! But let me leave you with the view before we hop on the train to head back North. Ciao, Naples — you are a very real, breathing, jostling, honking, careening place & we respect you for it.
February 6, 2025 at 6:01 PM
This city makes Rome seem really calm & straightforward. Which is a feat!! But let me leave you with the view before we hop on the train to head back North. Ciao, Naples — you are a very real, breathing, jostling, honking, careening place & we respect you for it.
Naples, iv: The next morning, we lingered at the hotel, enjoying the views before attempting to find the ocean at city-level. Big mistake — we got to eat our authentic lunch by a shipyard across the highway, folding soft Naples pizza like handkerchiefs in a parking lot.
February 6, 2025 at 5:54 PM
Naples, iv: The next morning, we lingered at the hotel, enjoying the views before attempting to find the ocean at city-level. Big mistake — we got to eat our authentic lunch by a shipyard across the highway, folding soft Naples pizza like handkerchiefs in a parking lot.
Naples, iii: Once in the center of the maze, we met Serena, a local who lives in the red zone of Vesuvius, & followed her around the Spanish Quarter looking at art & listening to histories — “No one was here for us when it was the worst. We learned we had to be here for ourselves.”
February 6, 2025 at 2:13 PM
Naples, iii: Once in the center of the maze, we met Serena, a local who lives in the red zone of Vesuvius, & followed her around the Spanish Quarter looking at art & listening to histories — “No one was here for us when it was the worst. We learned we had to be here for ourselves.”
If these photos look desolate, that’s on me. We were here on a street art walking tour after sunset, so while there were people all around, it was easy to stage empty shots that showcased the art & architecture of the place over the actual inhabitants. But trust me, people very very much live here.
February 6, 2025 at 10:16 AM
If these photos look desolate, that’s on me. We were here on a street art walking tour after sunset, so while there were people all around, it was easy to stage empty shots that showcased the art & architecture of the place over the actual inhabitants. But trust me, people very very much live here.
…tall buildings on all sides, petrol clouds & electrical wires in tangles above. It was almost mythical, the journey down, but as dark as it felt, there were sparkles of light & crackles of life everywhere.
February 6, 2025 at 10:14 AM
…tall buildings on all sides, petrol clouds & electrical wires in tangles above. It was almost mythical, the journey down, but as dark as it felt, there were sparkles of light & crackles of life everywhere.
Naples, ii: We checked into the oldest hotel in the city, a grand palace of an inn perched over the sea lost to an Englishman in a poker game 150 years ago. This place is gorgeous, but our walk back down to the Quartieri Spagnoli was a deathtrap — thin winding streets slicked with basalt…
February 6, 2025 at 10:14 AM
Naples, ii: We checked into the oldest hotel in the city, a grand palace of an inn perched over the sea lost to an Englishman in a poker game 150 years ago. This place is gorgeous, but our walk back down to the Quartieri Spagnoli was a deathtrap — thin winding streets slicked with basalt…
Partenope-inspired art by street artist Trallallà & the castle (Castel dell'Ovo) that’s still on the island that held the city with her name.
February 5, 2025 at 10:48 PM
Partenope-inspired art by street artist Trallallà & the castle (Castel dell'Ovo) that’s still on the island that held the city with her name.
A brief Neapolitan interlude — we took the Frecciarossa here & then quickly learned how hilly Naples is. But the payoff is a view of the winding coast with islands & volcanoes on the horizon. Later we learned this place is older than Rome — it was founded as Neapolis, a Greek colony in the 700s BC.
February 5, 2025 at 10:15 PM
A brief Neapolitan interlude — we took the Frecciarossa here & then quickly learned how hilly Naples is. But the payoff is a view of the winding coast with islands & volcanoes on the horizon. Later we learned this place is older than Rome — it was founded as Neapolis, a Greek colony in the 700s BC.
Another piece that really lit up my brain was Tolia Astakhishvili’s “When Others Are With Us,” 2024 — a site-specific installation, ie a whole world in one room partitioned by temporary walls à la Severance’s corridors only grungier — plus with the moody, empty, spooky feel of The Backrooms.
February 5, 2025 at 2:04 PM
Another piece that really lit up my brain was Tolia Astakhishvili’s “When Others Are With Us,” 2024 — a site-specific installation, ie a whole world in one room partitioned by temporary walls à la Severance’s corridors only grungier — plus with the moody, empty, spooky feel of The Backrooms.
Day 4: We said goodbye to our hotel, left our bags in a luggage locker, & took a bus to get the most mind-blowing vegan sandwiches we’ve ever had — then spent an hour being flipped upside down *metaphorically* by the 21st c art at MACRO. My favorite was a trio of videos that seemed normal enough…
February 5, 2025 at 1:49 PM
Day 4: We said goodbye to our hotel, left our bags in a luggage locker, & took a bus to get the most mind-blowing vegan sandwiches we’ve ever had — then spent an hour being flipped upside down *metaphorically* by the 21st c art at MACRO. My favorite was a trio of videos that seemed normal enough…
But before we leave for Naples, a quick stop at Palazzo Venezia & lunch at Fermaggio for vegan meat/cheese sandwiches.
February 5, 2025 at 11:15 AM
But before we leave for Naples, a quick stop at Palazzo Venezia & lunch at Fermaggio for vegan meat/cheese sandwiches.