Bow ... wow! Dog chapel draws animal lovers

updated 2:25 p.m. ET Feb. 21, 2008

ST. JOHNSBURY, Vt. - Degas had his ballerinas, Monet his water lilies. For Stephen Huneck, inspiration comes on four legs — its teeth dug into a stick, or tugging on a piece of rope, or playing on a beach.

The eclectic Vermont folk artist, who started out whittling wooden sculptures of dogs and now specializes in dog-themed furniture, woodcut paintings and children's books, has carved out a unique niche with his whimsical reproductions of Labrador retrievers and other dogs.

And his Dog Mountain studio and dog chapel — on a picturesque 175-acre hillside farm in rural northern Vermont — have evolved into a kind of doggy Disneyland, drawing animal lovers and their pets from all over, and some to mourn.

To Huneck, dogs are more than man's best friend.

"I really believe they're the great spirit's special gift to mankind," said Huneck, 59. "Dogs teach us more than we teach them."

But his first lessons were tough ones.

He was bitten by a German shepherd as a toddler, terrorized by a St. Bernard on his newspaper route as a teenager and left heartbroken once when his father bought a puppy for the family —but took it back to the pound the next day.

"Through it all, I just loved dogs," he said.

If you go Dog Mountain: 143 Parks Road, St. Johnsbury, Vt.; 800-449-2580. Stephen Huneck's gallery and dog chapel sit side-by-side on a steep hill on Dog Mountain. The dog chapel is open daily, year-round; the gallery, which contains a gift shop that sells Huneck's books, sculptures and art, is open Monday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and on Sunday from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Getting there: Located about 50 miles south of the U.S.-Canadian border, just off Route 2, north of the center of St. Johnsbury.

A longtime antique collector, the Sudbury, Mass., native turned to art professionally in the early 1980s, using old-fashioned chisels, saws and planes to handcarve his first few canine creations. Much of the basswood, cherry, maple and pine he works with comes from his farm.

His woodcuts — dogs with halos, dogs peeking out from under bedcovers, dogs sniffing each other — brim with the playfulness of a 6-week-old puppy. His sculptures and furniture, meanwhile, range from his Angel Dog statues — a black lab with golden wings — to coffee tables with sculpted legs that look like dogs, from night tables with dog head handles to rocking dogs.

Toby Talbot / AP Vermont folk artist Stephen Huneck, poses in his dog chapel in St. Johnsbury, Vt. Huneck, who started out whittling wooden sculptures of dogs and now specializes in dog-themed furniture, woodcut paintings and children's books, has carved out a unique niche with his whimsical reproductions of dogs.

Dog lovers fairly hound him for commissioned works. His client list includes actress Sandra Bullock (a dog sculpture wedding present for her husband), Dr. Phil McGraw of TV talk show fame (a drawing of his dog) and U.S. Sen. Patrick Leahy, whose Washington, D.C., office is decorated with Huneck art.

"I think, to describe his work to someone who has never seen it, you simply say `You have to see it, I can't describe it to give it the credit it deserves,'" said R. Scudder Smith, publisher of Antiques and The Arts Weekly, in Newtown, Conn. "It is too full of fun, imagination and talent to put into words."

His books, including "Sally Goes to the Beach," "Sally Goes to the Farm" and the new "Sally Gets a Job," feature woodcut prints accompanied by simple, pithy captions that celebrate man's unique relationship with dogs.

"Like a dog, he has no inhibitions," said Rob Hunter, gallery manager for Frog Hollow Vermont State Craft Center. "He goes all over the place with his work. He has tapped into that playfulness you get with a dog."

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