Christopher Griffin won’t let financial success stop him from becoming the best artist he can be.

After years of learning his trade, he has become one of the most visible and successful artists working in Ottawa today.

You may have seen images of whales, owls, turtles, fish and raccoons carved into wet concrete on the side of a house or streets like a primitive cave painting; a pair of alarmingly large hawks perched on the Bronson Street Bridge, or rhinos painted in graffiti on the Bayswater Underpass.

During one of the pandemic shutdowns of 2020, community-minded Griffin held weekly auctions of his art to raise money for the Ottawa Food Bank. Every week, from Thanksgiving to New Years, he auctions off original works of art.

He raised $65,000 for the food bank and didn’t take a dime.

“I do it for the food bank, because I wanted to help and I know that my work has value,” he explains. “I thought I could choose between two ways: volunteer to pack groceries for six hours or raise money for the bank. When in my life was I able to give $65,000? Never – but that’s how much I raised. It’s incredible.”

Largely self-taught and improvisational, a teenage Griffin didn’t know what he wanted to do in life – or more accurately, he knew he wanted to be an artist but realized his career choice would be unpopular with of his father, who wanted him to take over the family plumbing business.

Instead, he bit the bullet, turned down the family business, took graphic design classes at Sheridan College, and landed his first job designing paperback jacket covers.

After moving to Ottawa, Griffin and his then-wife bought a house on Pretoria Avenue. Unable to afford renovations to the masonry, he covered the exterior of the building with concrete and etched it with eye-catching images of whales.

Griffin wouldn’t have garnered more interest in his work if he had put it on a billboard on the 417 freeway.

And he’s leveraged that success to help local charities around the city, raising money for places like the Ottawa Food Bank with every brushstroke he makes.

News of Griffin’s concrete mural spread quickly, and orders poured in to do house exteriors, fireplaces, and restaurants.

Suddenly he was recognizable. A visual mark.

The story does not end there. One day, a graffiti artist tags one of his frescoes. Rather than call the town to complain, Griffin improvised and turned the tag into a painting of a horse.

Suddenly, every tag Griffin saw was an opportunity to create new art and beautify the community, even if not everyone was on board.

The city had painted tags on the Bayswater underpass with blocks of gray paint. Griffin saw an opportunity, and with a brush and a pot of matching paint in hand, he turned them into a herd of rhinos. A week later someone complained and the town painted its rhinos.

A week later, a determined Griffin painted the rhinos over the gray paint again. This time it lasted two weeks. On his third attempt, the cops arrived with a complaining neighbor. The cop took one look at Griffin’s artistic transformation and let him finish his job.

Ironically, Griffin’s rhinoceros mural – the very one for which he risked being accused of civil disobedience – won an Ottawa urban design award. The MPP for Hintonburg praised it, and the publicity led to similar projects at the airport, convention center and a library, which also won OUDA awards.

“It all started innocently enough,” he says. “I didn’t see the point of leaving ugly blocks of gray paint when I could turn them into something beautiful.”

He also produces more conventional works, oils, drawings and sculptures, which he exhibits and sells on his website www.christophergriffin.ca

In addition to beautifying the city, Griffin’s random acts of beautifying infrastructure also brought awareness to Griffin’s concrete and graffiti work. He published a book on the subject. Today, he receives commissions from all over the world to transform graffiti into unique street art.

“I like to create something that other people will enjoy,” he says. “But as an artist, I like to create new things. I never did anything just for the money. I know paintings of whales and canoes will sell well, but if that was all I did, I wouldn’t be happy. Creating is truly rewarding.

He adds, “Ottawa has been great with me. If I had stayed in Toronto, I would never have applied to do public art. I’m more successful than I ever imagined.