Vermont folk artist Stephen Huneck, whose paintings and woodcuts of dogs won him worldwide popularity and stirred construction of a canine chapel at his St. Johnsbury studio, has died. He was 60 years old and died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound Thursday.

Huneck was an artist, he worked in several mediums: sculpture, furniture-making and printmaking. He is known for his bold and bright woodcuts, in particular artwork of dogs.

His Labrador retreiver, Sally, became something of a household name in certain quarters — black-lab quarters — with the 1997 publication of his book, “My Dog’s Brain.”

Stephen Huneck’s interest in and love for dogs led to the creation in St. Johnsbury of Dog Mountain, which has a gallery featuring Huneck’s work and the Dog Chapel. The chapel, designed by Huneck, celebrates the bond between people and dogs. The chapel is open to visitors, many of whom come to honor dogs they’ve lost.

Stephen Huneck was dangerously in poor health with a respiratory disease before the publication of his book about Sally. The making of the book was an act of therapy, both physical and spiritual. In the introduction to the book, Huneck wrote: “I remember brilliantly working on that first print. It is called ‘Life is a Ball,’ and it is.”

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