The world has lost a wonderful artist who possessed a great deal of sparkle, kindness, and creativity with the passing of Dennis Spangler, who died in his sleep of heart failure on March 15. A very private person, with a warm soul and gentle personality, Dennis was a native of Santa Barbara who spent most of his life in his hometown and the later years of his life rather reclusively.
Dennis Lloyd Spangler was born September 1, 1953, at St. Francis Hospital. He attended Peabody Elementary, Kellogg, and Goleta Valley, and graduated from Dos Pueblos High School in 1971. Although Dennis took classes at SBCC, his real education and true métier as an artist came from the global influences of the world of books, design, art, and music (from rave to jazz to classical to ethnic new world rhythms) and from taking cues from artists in all fields of expression while building his own language with color, shape, paint, fabric, paper, foil, crystals, precious stones, found materials, rusty metal, and whatever else he got his hands on. Everything he touched and created — from his Summerland garden to jewelry made from his boxes of baubles to homemade cookies and pies from his kitchen — was unique, magical, and utterly delicious.
Dennis spent a short time in his youth with his family in Oakhurst, outside of Yosemite, where his father had a restaurant. Following high school, he spent a few months living with his best friend, Jeff Brook, and his family in Davis, California, before returning to Santa Barbara. He lived in Santa Barbara and Montecito, including on the Ravenscroft estate, where he had a studio to create his fine hand-painted fabrics (which have been featured in Architectural Digest and other publications) for the interior design trade. Dennis added to his fabric art by creating rooms from found objects, chandeliers, labels for Santa Barbara Winery, wall hangings for a church, jewelry, wands, paintings, and drawings in Summerland, where he spent the past 30 years of his life living in an ocean-view geodesic dome with his lifelong friend Ron Bishop.