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Photo by Tony Caldwell / OTTwp

It’s a big improvement for the block. The exterior wall of the home had been flat black, painted by the homeowner a few years ago to cover up some lurid graffiti, and the lack of colour seemed to make the adjacent parking lot darker and more foreboding. After sunset, the tiny lot was a magnet for illegal activity.

The mural is now partly illuminated at night, and no one has to gather used syringes in the morning.

The irony is that the mural itself was illegal until a recent exemption, simply because it’s on a residential property.

The situation is frustrating for the 35-year-old Montreal-born artist who painted it. Known as “arpi,” a short form that anglicizes the pronunciation of his initials, he’s responsible for several eye-catching murals around town, often incorporating animals and circles in his designs.

Photo by Ashley Fraser / Postmedia

He created the cute bulldog on a nearby Hintonburg property, igniting controversy this year when bylaw enforcement threatened to crack down on it and other residential murals. Owners of the house with the elk mural also received a registered letter advising them to cover the mural, or the city would do it for them.

After a public outcry, it briefly turned into a campaign issue, and Mayor Jim Watson promised to make murals easier for homeowners, noting the fact that the city itself promotes public art.

Photo by Ashley Fraser / Postmedia

Still, work that Beaudry had designed and proposed to property owners in the neighbourhood was put on hold by residents nervous about breaking the rules.

“I’m completely sidelined,” he said. “It’s frustrating. I’m trying really hard. The city talks about supporting artists, but it doesn’t. It’s hindering artists.”

In the meantime, exemptions to allow the Hintonburg murals were fast-tracked by Coun. Jeff Leiper, who continues to advise patience.

“We heard the mayor’s commitment … to revisit the bylaws so there’s a lot more flexibility for homeowners to put murals up on their properties,” he said recently. “That will take a couple of months to start rolling out once the new term of council begins.”

Ottawa’s mural culture:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nX01PDqRP9E&feature=youtu.be

Ottawa has seen a proliferation of outdoor murals in the past few years, thanks to several city-administered programs, including Crime Prevention Ottawa’s Paint it Up! program, based on the widely accepted notion that art deters the crime of graffiti: Taggers won’t tag if there’s already a piece of art on a wall. (There are also three legal graffiti walls in city: the underside of the Dunbar Bridge, 1301 Bronson Ave., the retaining wall, known as the Tech Wall, at the Albert Street Education Centre, 422 Slater St., and the Orleans skatepark at the Bob MacQuarrie Recreation Complex, 1490 Youville Dr.)