Born in Cleveland, Ohio, Carol Griffin initially pursued a career in business after obtaining a Bachelor of Business Administration degree. However, she soon decided that her artistic bent was the path she wanted to follow. She moved to New York City to pursue her burgeoning artistic interests. She began studying stone carving and clay modeling at The Compleat Sculptor in New York City. Following that, she began to study stone sculpture at The Art Students League of New York, where she was introduced to direct carving by her instructor, master sculptor Lorrie Goulet.
When Goulet retired, Griffin continued her art education in New York City with studies at the New York University School of Professional and Continuing Education, New York Studio School of Drawing, Painting, and Sculpture (where she received a Ramapo Trust Scholarship), The National Academy School of Fine Arts, and Pratt Institute. She crossed paths with Goulet again, and for almost twelve years studied figurative and abstract direct carving in wood and stone with Goulet in her private studio until Goulet’s death in 2021.
Griffin’s work has been included in several juried group exhibitions in New York City, and she has also exhibited in Southampton, New York at Chrysalis Gallery and in East Hampton, New York at the Guild Hall museum. Her work is currently on display at the Harmon-Meek gallery in Naples, Florida. She has exhibited at the Polk Museum of Art in Lakeland, Florida, and her work is included in the permanent collection of the Golisano Children’s Museum of Naples, and in private collections throughout the United States.
In 2023, Griffin was the Featured Solo Artist in “Apprentice Turned Master: The Nature of Direct Carving” at Harmon-Meek Gallery in Naples, Florida. She has exhibited at the Polk Museum of Art in Lakeland, Florida, and her work is in the permanent collection of the Golisano Children’s Museum of Naples, Florida.