Why did Vermont artist Stephen Huneck build the Dog Chapel?
The "wild idea" came to him shortly after he returned home with his wife and three dogs following a serious accident that left him suffering with Adult Respiratory Distress Syndrome and in a coma for two months. At the Dog Chapel Web site, Huneck shares the compelling story of how his illness and a near-death experience profoundly inspired him to show appreciation for basic things we often take for granted.
"I look at this chapel as the largest artwork of my life, and my most personal," states Huneck.
Dogs were already a subject of interest to the artist, known for his whimsical wood sculptures, furniture and woodcut prints, and they now dominate his works, which are exhibited and sold in a gallery on the Dog Chapel property, as well as at the Stephen Huneck Gallery in Stowe, Vermont.
