Denver artists transform metal scrap and graffiti roots into a sculptural mural at Ruby Hill

You can find art anywhere you just have to know where to look. Even on a calm neighborhood street, metal sculptor Vanny Channal finds the raw material for his work.

"What you can do with metal is just endless," Channal said. Your imagination is the cap to how far you can reach with it.

For Channal, metal is a reflection of himself.

"Metal is robust. Its strong. But sometimes it can also be weak and brittle, and it gets dirty because of the elements around it," Channal said.

Channal is one of three artists collaborating on "Home," a public art piece that will live on the pump house at Ruby Hill Park in Denver. Installation is planned for late November.

For muralist Ratha Sok, art is deeply personal and it once led him into trouble.

"It's a passion, but it's a part of my identity," Sok said. "I got caught up for graffiti as a juvie, and I spent some time in the juvenile detention center.

Years later, Channal and Sok are coming together Channal contributing sculptural butterflies and bees, Sok contributing the mural to share their shared heritage.

"Vanny and I are sharing our Cambodian experience," Sok said.

The artists describe the work as a new kind of experience.

"We're calling this piece a sculptural mural, where it's a full 360 mural experience," Sok said. Its an experience not only just as a 2D experience but also 3D experience.

Painter Joe Miller is also lending a hand with the project, painting the metal butterflies and bees that were sculpted Channal.

"This was probably one of the more fun because it does have so many elements in it. The skyline, the light rail, the convention center," Miller said. It's obviously very inspirational for me to you have something that's going to be so visible and can be appreciated by so many people.

The project is made possible through the City of Denver. Denver Public Art sets aside 1% of every municipal capital improvement project for the creation of public art.

"I was just a kid running around that neighborhood, and now I have this opportunity to create a public art piece that will live there for many years," Sok said.

The piece features portraits of immigrants and refugees, of nature, and everything that makes the Ruby Hill neighborhood feel like home.

"I want people, the people of Ruby Hill, when they go to the park, to feel like, oh wow, yeah, I'm home, I'm back, Channal said.

For Sok, seeing the neighborhood's growth is meaningful.

"It's just really nice to see how far this community has come, and to be able to be a part of it is just a huge honor," Sok said.

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