Etched in stone
Artists’ legacies take many forms.
Musicians, actors and dancers might create moments on stage that linger in the minds of an audience. But for sculptor Rich Griendling, his legacy is literally etched in stone, as well as bronze, steel, plaster and much more.
Griendling, a consumer-member of Nolin RECC, is an accomplished visual artist and graphic designer who’s produced art for schools, hospitals, businesses, halls of fame and public spaces, like the Elizabethtown Nature Park, home of the Hardin County Veterans Tribute.
The 2012 installation features bronze statues Griendling created as a tribute to servicemembers and civil servants.
Kentucky Living covered the opening of the exhibit, and one of the project’s organizers, Mary Smith of Vine Grove, told the magazine, “We’re very fortunate to have Rich,” she said. “He’s such an outstanding artist, designer, and sculptor—that’s been such a blessing.”
Griendling says, “Thirteen years later, I still have people coming up to me, thanking me, and asking me about the process.”
He used models to meticulously craft the statues from clay that he sent to a foundry that forged the statues for display. Over his career, Griendling has also worked in painting, illustration, graphic design, home design, film and projects that defy categorization, like the one that helped bring him and his wife, Sylvia, to Kentucky.
In the late 1970s, Griendling accepted a commission from the Schmidt family of Hardin County to create a work of art that involved working with high school apprentices to attach 18 fiberglass human figures to a working van and wrapping the whole display in a red-and-white Coca-Cola logo.
This so-called mobile sculpture received widespread media coverage and became part of the Elizabethtown’s Schmidt Museum of Coca-Cola Memorabilia. That attraction closed in 2011, but the relationship between the Griendlings and the community has endured.
From the beginning, “Kentucky just felt like home,” Sylvia says. In Elizabethtown, the couple raised two sons and built their business, Griendling Designs. Rich’s local reputation grew so quickly that Sylvia recalls, “Rich would get mail addressed to ‘The Artist – Elizabethtown, Kentucky.’”
“Living in rural Kentucky has been an inspiration for my designs,” Rich says. “The rolling hills, the wide-open landscapes, the colors, the textures, and most of all the people here made Sylvia and me feel at home from the get-go.”
Rich grew up in Philadelphia, where his parents encouraged his artistic talents from an early age. He studied graphic design and sculpture in college, where he met Sylvia on a blind date (“Somehow, it stuck,” she says with a laugh.) and moved around before arriving in Hardin County in 1977.
Since then, Rich has established a reputation as a skilled and versatile artist who has created logos for businesses (including a previous logo for Nolin RECC), an educational display for John Hardin High School and sculptures of famous figures from Hank Aaron to Hank Williams Jr. to Colonel Sanders.
Rich told some of the stories behind his work in the 2023 book The Artwork of Rich Griendling. In every medium, he says, “Good design is THE thread that runs through all art forms.”
Now retired, Rich’s art is taking a different form. In 2021, he was diagnosed with Primary Progressive Apraxia of Speech, a neurodegenerative condition that makes it difficult to speak. “I used to present talks about my work and process to large and small audiences, but that became impossible,” Rich wrote via email. The disease has forced him to develop new ways to communicate. “I’m fortunate that I can draw images to get my ideas across.”
Rich may be creating art on a smaller scale these days, but each work adds to a legacy that’s on display in Elizabethtown and elsewhere, creating moments and memories for people every day. And while his literal voice may be limited, “my work carries on,” Rich says, “and speaks for itself.”
