ERIC PETERSON | WEDNESDAY, JULY 15, 2015 –  Public art can completely reshape the forgotten nooks and crannies of a city. Here are a half-dozen public artworks that have changed Denver for the better, and a half-dozen spots that could use some color.

Denver Parks & Recreation transformed a sombrero-shaped slide into a sleeping giant cowboy in Bear Valley Park

Denver icon and the city’s most “selfied” work of public art

As part of an anti-tagging initiative in Westwood, local artists create public art along Morrison Road

The mousetrap crossroads of interstates 25 and 70 could use a jolt of color

The LoHi landmark is the centerpiece of one of the most active places in Denver.

An opportunity to liven up the stretch with public art that tells a story on the way

Public art has the capacity to inform, inspire and enliven people and places. Over and over again, an outdoor masterwork has been the engine for urban revitalization.

Look around. Denver is a model city for public art, from the city’s program that directs a percent of projects over $1 million into public art to plenty of businesses, nonprofits and city departments that have upped the city’s aesthetics on their own dime.

But it’s a big canvas. The city is a work in progress, and will always be. Here’s six of our favorites — and six voids yet to be filled.    Read More in Confluence Denver