A weathered pump house at Ruby Hill Park is about to become a full-circle canvas for three Denver artists telling stories of immigration, nature and neighborhood belonging. Metal sculptor Vanny Channal, muralist Ratha Sok and painter Joe Miller are collaborating on “Home,” a 360-degree public art piece that will live on the structure, with portraits of immigrants and refugees woven alongside natural imagery and details meant to capture what makes Ruby Hill feel like home.
The three artists are splitting the work by craft. Channal is building sculptural butterflies and bees out of metal, Sok is painting the mural itself, and Miller is adding color and detail onto Channal's metal creatures, according to Denver7. Installation on the pump house is planned for late November, the station reports.
Channal and Sok are also sharing their own Cambodian experience through the piece, per the same account. Sok, a first-generation Cambodian American born in Denver, has spoken candidly about his path to the craft: he has said he got caught up in graffiti as a juvenile and spent time in juvenile detention before channeling that energy into murals.
From Graffiti Tags to Gallery Walls
Sok's transition from street art to professional muralism has been years in the making. He began his art journey in 2002, and has described his trajectory in his own words: “My humble roots come from graffiti and have evolved into my art career today as a muralist,” he told RTD Denver in connection with his earlier “Great Day” mural at the agency's RidgeGate Station.
Channal, working in metal, described the material's dual nature in comments carried by the Denver7 report: metal is robust and strong but can also be weak and brittle, and it gets dirty from the elements. That tension between durability and fragility runs through the butterflies and bees he is sculpting for “Home,” pieces that Miller then paints to bring to life.
Miller brings a formal art education to the collaboration, having earned a BFA in painting from the University of Utah and a master's degree in painting from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, according to his own artist biography.
Part of a Larger Push at Ruby Hill
“Home” is being made possible by the City of Denver, and it fits into a much larger civic investment in public art. Denver Public Art has invested $40 million in public art since 1988 and now manages a collection with more than 400 pieces across the city, according to Denver Public Art, which also reports that roughly 55% of that collection was created by local Colorado artists as of 2019. Denver7 describes the program as setting aside 1% of every municipal capital improvement project for public art, while Denver Public Art's own site specifies that the 1% requirement applies to municipal capital projects over $1 million.
Ruby Hill Park itself has become something of a hub for new public art this year. Denver Public Art's April 2026 highlights noted that the artist team Steel N Pacific, made up of Channal and Sok, was preparing to install a separate piece at the park called “Ruby,” described as a layered, textured steel mural honoring the park's past, present and future, complete with an augmented-reality component for visitors. Arts and Venues Denver has also pointed to Ruby Hill among the sites slated for new work as part of 30 public art projects initiated citywide in 2026.
Between the sculptural bees and butterflies, the painted portraits, and the mural work going up on the pump house, “Home” is shaping up as a distinctly personal addition to that citywide push, one grounded in the artists' own immigrant and refugee stories as much as in the neighborhood they are painting it for.
