Local Business Focus - Schoharie Man Fashions Stone Art at his Chiseled Edge Business

SCHOHARIE — Richard McCormack loves creating art out of blank pieces of stone, and that love shows no sign of fading.

A lifelong artist and long-time owner of a full-fledged landscaping business, McCormack has narrowed his focus and has been making a nice living for well over a decade now from The Chiseled Edge venture he owns and operates from his home at 5699 State Route 30 in Schoharie.

Using a variety of tools at his home workspaces, the Schnectady native and long-time Schoharie County resident fashions statues, water features and other items people use as part of their home landscaping, home memorials or other uses. The raw materials are mostly Heldeberg or Pennsylvania Bluestone, but also some Indiana Limestone, local Fieldstone and other rocks.

"I've always been in art, my whole life, drawing, painting, whatever," said McCormack in an interview from the house he lives in with his wife Sharon. The couple have three children.

"I started the landscaping business on my own and operated that for many years," he continued. "When I first started, I was also working at Price Chopper and did both full time for probably a good 8 to 10 years. We had two kids at the time. It was a crazy time."

A strong work ethic continues to drive McCormack as his business has evolved to where the primary focus is sculpting stone.

"I still do some small-scale jobs on other kinds of landscaping at times, and some masonry jobs if somebody needs something repaired," he said.

McCormack also does paintings, many of them on stone, and that work is displayed in a shed on the property and also available for sale. He didn't go to school to acquire or refine any of his skills.

"I just learned," he said. "That's the thing with art, you're always learning. It's a learning process the whole time."

His artistic bent runs in the blood to a certain extent.

"My uncle is a master wood carver and my daughter, she doesn't do it now but for many years designed custom children's clothes," McCormack noted.

Included in his work is the stone memorial at the Apple Barrel less than a mile from McCormack's house that honors the 20 victims of the horrific stretch limousine accident there in 2018.

"I do a lot of memorials," he said. "That (Apple Barrel) was one and also for people who want to be buried in memorial gardens on their properties."

Being his own boss for so many years has developed in McCormack, 64, a tried and true business philosophy.

"The hard thing with art is finding something that sells," he noted. "I've done art all my life, and you get to a point where you get discouraged with it because you make something and you can't sell it.

"I have friends who are artists too and I'm probably the only one that's grounded, knowing what is not going to sell. One friend does wood carvings. They are incredible, but he will do something and want 10 grand for it and it won't sell and he gets so discouraged. I tell him you can make a Blue Jay all day and sell it."

As McCormack said, making a living from art is a continuous learning process.

"The key is finding that niche, making things that people want to buy," he emphasized. "It seems like every item I make now sells. It might take five years for some, but eventually it sells because everyone has their own taste. I make a lot of owls, squirrels, dragonflies and butterflies. They sell."

An advertisement for The Chiseled Edge reads: "Statues, water features, paintings. HandPicked. HandCut. HandChiseled. Custom designs welcomed. Wide range of styles, sizes and prices."

Sharon helps her husband with the computer work and books. It's all workng well, Richard McCormack said.

"It keeps me busy," he noted. "Springtime comes and we get a lot of people stopping in. I'm glad I started (The Chiseled Edge) 15 years ago because now I'm getting repeat people."

For more information on The Chiseled Edge, call 518-295-7656, visit the business' Facebook page or stop by and take a look around. It's only about a mile or so off of Interstate 88.