"They wanted something purely decorative. Nashville deserved more than wallpaper."
Rangewater reached out in December of 2022. They were looking for something very different for the city of Nashville, something for their new luxury development, The Scottie. After lengthy discussions, it became clear that they were looking for a purely decorative work. Nothing narrative. Nothing with a message. Just beautiful.
I went back to my early studio work, where I spent years deconstructing Victorian ornament, pulling it apart and rebuilding it with rhythm, tension, and color. But I wanted the piece to mean something to the city it would live in. Nudie Cohn gave me the thread. The Ukrainian-born tailor rose to fame in Nashville outfitting the legends of country music since the 1940s: rhinestones, sequins, wildly ornamental suits that turned performers into icons. Elvis wore Nudie's work. Hank Williams wore Nudie's work. The suits were extravagant enough to be almost absurd, and somehow more country for it.
The Scottie pulls those two things together: the lush geometry of Victorian surface design and the outsized, joyful ornamentation of Nudie Cohn's world. It's decorative all the way down, and underneath the decoration, it's a nod to the culture that made Nashville what it is.
