The artist typically works with wood.

Bog Walker began as a solid block of wooden planks, which Spangler shaped into an organic form that stands nearly eight feet tall. He mapped the surface with intricately carved drawings.

Spangler then experimented with bronze to create an outdoor sculpture.

“The bronze—I think there are nine or ten panels and they’re separated out. Then they have to reassemble those pieces, like a puzzle, to be a replica of the wood piece,” says Spangler.

Each section was expertly welded together, inside and out.

The heavy bronze Bog Walker has emerged from the forest wetland to find its new home in a public garden.

Like a diary or a scroll, the sculpture is covered with images of Spangler’s tools and objects from rural or daily life as well as abstract patterns and symbols. How do these markings tell a story?

A clamp for woodworking

A vice grip

The outline of his wife’s leg

The artist’s studio in the woods