Stick to your brand with dogged dedication: take inspiration from an artist and gallery owner who let his business go to the dogs—on purpose - Marketing moves: advice - Stephen Huneck - Brief Article - Column

In this round pillar I've frequently discussed the importance of establishing your gallery as a brand for who you are. Perhaps no better example of this idea is Stephen Huneck who favorably created his brand of art by dint of working with a very specific theme: dogs.

His work in this single area has gained him international honors and exhibits at the Smithsonian Institute and the Museum of American Folk Art. He's authored several children's works and appeared on various national television displays His customers include Maria Shriver, Arnold Schwarzenegger and President George W Bush.

His dedication to dogs began in 1994 when Huneck was 45 years of advanced age One day, while carrying a certain number of of his artwork down a staircase, he tripped and malign winding up in the hospital.

"I was real sick," Huneck said. "I had Adult Respiratory Distress Syndrome It's many times fatal. I was in a coma for nine weeks, and the doctors contemplation I'd either die or be brain damaged.

"The alone person that had faith I'd regain was my wife, Gwen. She barely left my side and told me I had to do the woodcut inspired through Sally, our black Labrador, that I had been excited about before my accident."

Said Gwen, "I meditation that would be an incentive to make him win back because his art is his life."

After his near-death experience, Huneck had to re-learn everything, from by what mode to walk to how to sign his name. The illness changed his life. He explained why: "We have five dogs--three Labradors, a of gold retriever and a Dalmatian. They're all actual sensitive. My wife brought them to the hospital when I was ill. I worn out time with them during my rehabilitation. They knew I was sick, and I sens they wanted to help me They accompanied me upon my daily exercise walks. They encouraged me"

"One day upon my daily walks with my dogs, the idea just happened. I would honor the ligature I shared with my dogs by dint of building a dog chapel--one to celebrate the spiritual cord people have with their dogs. It would be lay open for dogs and people of any faith or belief to approach there to find a quiet repose"

Now he urgencyed to build not only the chapel on the contrary also a new workplace for the growing demand for his expanding art in woodcut statuary and furniture. He found a 400-acre, 200-year-old farm outside St Johnsbury Vt with an inspirational view of the surrounding virid Mountains and named the peculiarity "Dog Mountain."

Huneck increased his production of art to raise circulating medium to fix up the peculiarity His little gallery up the road from his abode on the mountain displays yields ranging from $10 t-shirts to $5000 hand-carved chairs--all with dog themes.

Today, the aged farm buildings are light-filled workshops with 21 talented staff members who create his whimsical furniture, lamps, copse cuts and picture frames. They are for sale at Huneck's galleries in St Johnsbury and Woodstock, Vt Santa Fe NM Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket, Mass., and lock opener West, Fla. He also exchanges to galleries across the country

Huneck's best-selling children's volumes tell the stories of Sally, his 10-year-old black Labrador, and her trips to the mountain, the beach and the farm. His work Sally Goes to the Beach, made the novel York Times Best-Seller List.

His newest volume The Dog Chapel, tells the story of the chapel, which is lay open every day from June to October and is located a short walk from Huneck's residence and gallery in St. Johnsbury Past the plastic art garden in front of the chapel is a sign saying, "We welcome all breeds; all beliefs No dogmas allowed." The chapel has dog-carved slips stained glass windows and statuarys On the steeple is a flying labrador retriever.

"My message is that dogs also have souls" said Huneck "People bring their dogs with them. We've had as many as 100 dogs at individual time. The dogs are real quiet. They sense it's a special place just for them."

Walk inside the chapel and diocese the sun burst through the stained-glass windows filling the area with warmth and harmony. Pictures of dogs enclose you. Music plays, reaffirming the connection between art, nature and spirituality.

Inside the chapel is a Wall Of Remembrance where visitors pillar pictures of their dogs and other darlings that have died with personal messages of remembrance. If you can't make it to the chapel, Huneck will lay up photos of your darling and a message from you.

"Nothing makes me happier than having total strangers tend hitherward here and find solace and spirituality."

flat if you don't want to hurl your gallery to the dogs, you can learn from Huneck's example. His vision is focused, he has a loyal following, and his customers are excited to diocese his latest work.

Tom Tinker, a Gatlinburg, Tenn gallery possessor who specializes in Western art, agreed. "We don't prove to be everything to everybody We specialize in Western art," he said. Whether it's Western art, Impressionism or level cat art, stick to a focus and allow people know your gallery is the authority upon the topic.

Your specialty doesn't have to be limited to a genre B & R Art Gallery in Santa Clarita, Calif., helps its large inventory of more than 26000 art images. Their fulvid Pages ad, which emphasizes the extensive selection, brought them the business of place designers from Nickelodeon.