By Logan B. Anderson

SMYRNA – Where others may see a pile of rocks or rubble, Smyrna-based artist and businessman Richard H. Bailey may see a school of fish, a rugged cross or a turtle.

It’s that imagination, along with his skill and experience that has allowed Mr. Bailey to practice his craft for more than a half century.

During the global COVID-19 pandemic, many of the galleries where Mr. Bailey exhibits and sells his art had to shutter their doors. So, when he saw an opportunity to return to his stone roots, he took it.

Recently, his small stone-working shop on Smyrna Landing Road has been set up to cut slabs of stone to be used as cemetery markers.

“I’m cutting tombstones,” Mr. Bailey said pointing to large slab of granite on a table saw about to be cut by a large spinning diamond blade.

On Thursday morning, he was working on an order for a customer in New Castle County that will use the stones he and his apprentice Edward Ponder cut as the base of a sign that will identify not people but trees.

“They are planting four holly trees and they need four tombstones. They’ll put a brass plaque on them. I have to drill the holes,” Mr. Bailey said.

For more than 50 years Mr. Bailey has been creating from stone. His cutting station is set up in front of a garage he uses as his art gallery. The small building holds a lifetime of work.

“My first piece I did was actually in high school. I did it of (President Dwight D. Eisenhower). The teacher said I could do anything I want, I said OK.”

In the rear of his gallery, you can see a marble bust of another U.S. president, Abraham Lincoln. The Lincoln bust was his first in marble.

“That one took me two years.”

The gallery is a timeline of his artistic life. Visitors can see Mr. Bailey’s work in many kinds of stone and his many influences, from the Italian masters to local stone cutters.

“I started out with a tombstone man in 1963,” Mr. Bailey said. “We went to church together.”

He finds a lot of inspiration from his faith and credits his start to the time he spent in church with his mother.

“My mother was a Sunday school teacher. I went to church with her. When I was about 16, I said, ‘God, what do you want me to do,’ I could almost feel his presence there. He said, ‘I want you to work in stone.’ Then 40 years later, I’m cutting the stone for the Presbyterian church. That was the church I went to,” Mr. Bailey said with a smile.

“I figured, if I worked for Him, I’d probably be alright.”

Indeed, his career has been “alright.”

His creations have been exhibited in major museums and shows in Delaware and the East Coast of the U.S. and his work has been displayed as far away as Italy and Japan.

“I’ve exhibited in Rehoboth; Annapolis, Maryland; the Nelson Rockefeller Gallery in New York City. I have also exhibited in the Newman Gallery in Philadelphia,” he said.

Working in stone is not light work.

“Granite is 180 pounds a square foot,” Mr. Bailey said of the material with which he is currently working.

With the help of his apprentice, Mr. Bailey uses every skill and implement he has available to work the quarried stone into manageable pieces.

“I’ve got 500 tools, 700 techniques,” Mr. Bailey said laughing.

To get a piece ready to cut on the large stone saw, it must first be hammered and chiseled.

Mr. Bailey’s apprentice prefers the mechanical tools.

“I like the saw,” Mr. Ponder said, laughing, “I’m not too good with the chisels yet.”

When Mr. Bailey isn’t creating new sculptures, he makes tabletops and brokers the sale of quarried stone.

“Working with stone is my passion. I’ve been able to do a lot with it,” Mr. Bailey said.

His Smyrna gallery is open by appointment.

For more information about his work or to order a custom piece, call 302-653-4810 or visit here.