Cole Farina – Artist site

• A Summers Day in Langford
• Japan: Documented
• Europe 2024

Click here to browse my works produced at the college!

• My time @ Camosun

Artist Bio

Cole Farina is an interdisciplinary photographer living in Victoria. He received his formal training at
Camosun College on Vancouver Island in the Visual Arts program and was featured in various
shows throughout his college education. Farina was awarded the District Authority Scholarship
Award in Visual Arts upon graduation from high school.
Farina’s main explorations in photography include landscape, macro, and long exposure imagery.
His works lean into the technical side of making. Other areas of his practice are in printmaking and
painting.

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Artist Statement

I have always been enamoured with photography even at a young age. I remember living in Cobble Hill in a house just on the edge of the woods. The formative memories of going into the woods was so magical, the cohabitation of the trees, the moss, and ferns all created a mystic intrigue. I have found that my work reflects that inner curiosity for things around me.I am intrigued with how the human brain perceives the world around it and what different ways of seeing there are.Something wonderful happens when you start to see the world through your brain instead of your eyes, especially when you start to visualize how the brain recalls on a memory.In my other main areas of practice, I lean into abstraction over representation. How colours speak to each other and how shapes interact.I love photography because of how immediate it is, and how slow it can be, how technical you can make it, and how simple it can be reduced to. There can be a very systematic and iterative way to creating a photo while some photos are quicker than a blink of an eye.

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Would you like to reach out to me? Have you yearned to ask a burning question? You're in luck! Courtesy this handy-dandy contact form, you're able to talk to me! Just please don't be inappropriate.

• Photography

• Paintings & 2D Media

• Scuplture

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Photography work @ Camosun

On this page I have the highlights of my work in photography at Camosun. This page has a range of my work from silly little projects to one of the crowned jewels of my portfolio: Vision through Senses. And hey, look at that it's right below this block of text!

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I want to catch a recollection...

...something like how a viewer would recall a memory

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The next section has a little bit from an assignment all about an early photography movement called Pictorialism. Quote "Pictorialists took the medium of photography and reinvented it as an art form, placing beauty, tonality, and composition above creating an accurate visual record."
– theartstory.orgSo there you have it, pictorialism. I believe it started in 1885 so quite a long time ago and lasted until the 1920s.

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Misc.

Some miscellaneous photographs from various assignments or research shots that didn't end up in the final project for whatever reason.

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2D Media

I quite enjoy flat art works, there's something quite satisfying about having the finished piece be so nicely and neatly packaged into a flat object.In terms of painting; I seemingly paint pretty much exclusively abstract. You can be the judge of that I suppose.

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Printmaking

My time at camosun exposed me to printmaking; something I had never done before. As it turns out it's one of my favourite things. Something about printmaking scratches this itch inside of my head in just the right way and satisfies my needs for pretty flat objects. Of course, printmaking is very complex and can be whatever the individual wants, but for me I enjoy how it all comes together in the end.

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This piece is inspired by my late father Paul. He used to have a great big orange camper van, and while I don't remember much as he passed when I was quite young, his camper van parked in the driveway sticks out in my memories of him.This piece was actually modelled off of a random camper van I took a picture of here in Victoria, but regardless thats sort of where I got the inspiration from.

This silk screen print was made using a photo I took when I was on a family camping trip on the northern tip of Vancouver Island! If you're confused about how the image was captured, find the explanation below!

This image was captured with my iPhone right on the surface of the water. it was taken where the rapids are so thats why the water is moving so much. I guess when they say the best camera you have is the one in your pocket they're not kidding.Spoilers about the image: in the bottom right corner, I think that is a river rock, and in the top left corner I believe thats a little bit of the rocky beach peaking into frame.

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Sculpture

Before Camosun College, I hadn't really spent much time with sculpture as a medium for making anything really 3D. I've come to find that sculpture is not one of my worst mediums, I actually enjoy it a decent amount. Of course that depends on what kind of sculpture specifically but I digress.

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This project was a bold embarking into working with fabrics for the first time in quite a large way. the premise for this projects creation was to represent the different shades of who I am and my different experiences that have made me into who I am.

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Ceramics

Throwing on the wheel, in the beginning, was awful. Absolutely not good. But then with time something clicked within me and things got easier. I'm still not the best with the wheel, but I'm decently proud of the progress I've made.

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These bowls were the fruits of some of my first ever sustained efforts on the pottery wheel. Lots of time went into to making these bowls. I think my favourite part of ceramics (so far at least) is the glazing. There are so many different and beautiful things you can do with glazing and I am just enamoured with it!

Using lots of planning and sketches, I made many clay panels, and then as things usually seem to go, I had to rework my measurements for the revised version to account for gaps I hadn't had seen. This piece is actually Raku! For the uninitiated, Raku is an old technique that makes clay porous, so water will seep through it. Using this projects outline, I thought it would be fun to make something ironic, like a dresser. The dresser is known for holding things and Raku is known for letting things drip though it. idk I thought it was funny ¯|(ツ)/¯