Conventional wisdom says when bankers retire, they travel, they tune up their golf swing, dust off their bridge skills, and enjoy the good life.

When Dick Alden retired from the banking game, he decided to turn big rocks into little rocks and took up stone sculpting.

But, he started hammering and chiseling before he retired from the former Gardiner Savings Bank.

“We had lived in Andover, Massachusetts where I had a career as a banker and Cilla, my wife, worked as an architectural designer,” he said.

After they raised their kids, they thought about the future. “We asked ourselves, ‘Where do we want to live.’” They picked the tiny Ocean Point cottage they bought in 1980 and updated it.

A woodworking course triggered his interest in sculpture, and one day, he just picked up a hammer and a cold chisel and carved out a bird bath.

A summer visit to the Common Ground Fair introduced him to the Maine Stoneworkers Guild where he got some tips on tools and a dose of encouragement.

After they moved, he worked for another 12 years, retired, and got serious about hammering and chiseling.

One of the first lessons he learned was that while stone carvers can create beautiful objects, they also generate noise and dust, lots of dust.

“Cilla wouldn’t let me work inside the house, and she wasn’t crazy about me working outside, either,” he said.

At the time, Cilla, an accomplished fiber artist, was sharing a studio with a friend, so the couple began looking for a place where they could work together. They found a lot tucked in the woods, built a 30’ by 40’ studio and divided it in half.

Dick’s side is open and spartan. The main feature is a large steel arch featuring a serious chain fall hoist used to move massive stone slabs. It also sports professional dust collection equipment, dozens of chisels, and a place to think.

Cilla’s side features a wall of brightly colored yarn skeins overlooking a large loom, a work table, a small loom, a printing press and a cozy nook featuring a warm leather couch.

She is working on a bright red weaving in preparation for a fiber arts show scheduled for Aug. 6 to 30 at the Down East Gallery in Edgecomb. “It will feature a dozen of the finest fiber artists in Maine. Don’t miss it,” she said.

Dick points out the dividing wall that is allegedly soundproof and dust proof. To travel from one side to another, you walk through a sort of airlock that doubles as a combination library and john.

The set up is just right.

“Here, we are together, and we are alone,” he said. He called it a place where they could concentrate on their projects. “We can also critique each other, and, because we are best friends, help each other,” he said.

Several years ago, he met noted sculptor Donald Meserve at a stoneworking symposium held at J.C. Stone Works in Jefferson. Meserve, from Round Pond, became Dick’s mentor. That meeting was the first in a series of stone sculpting seminars which provided many of the works in the Boothbay Harbor Region Sculpture Trail.

This year’s Maine Stone Symposium will take place on the Boothbay Common from July 27 to Aug. 4. There, the public will have a chance to observe 10 working artists. “Don’t forget to thank our sponsors and community supporters,” said Dick.

The public will have a chance to bid on some of this year’s crop of sculptures as part of the Boothbay Region Land Trust’s Points of View Art Auction. It will take place at the BRLT’s new headquarters at Oak Point Farm.

For the last seven years, some of Dick’s large stone sculptures have stood in a sort of garden located behind Studio 53.

One day, Dick says he was looking out the studio window when he saw a man looking at one of his large pieces. It was a pair of curved stones representing a man and a woman. It measured about six feet by six feet by six feet and weighed nearly three tons. He called it “Soulmates.”

Dick said he walked out and asked if he could answer any questions about the work.

“Tell me,” said the man. “How much would it cost to ship that to Texas?”

“I don’t know, but I can find out,” said Dick. “Do that, and my C.F.O. will call you,” the man said.

“My C.F.O. ?” Dick thought.

It turns out the man was building a housing development and wanted to use it as a centerpiece for the front gate.

“As I recall, I sold it to him for $10,000, and it cost $2,300 to ship it to Texas,” said Dick.