former athens mayor, gwen o’looney has anything but a dull personality and outlook on life.  many of us artists and musicians give her much credit to making athens what it is today.  the art and music filled city, that it is now known for;  was fueled by her push for the arts while mayor.

gwen and her husband john, live in a home in the historic cobbham district.  many of the houses in this neighborhood are rather traditional, a few with some color, but this one stands apart as it is truly a “one of-a-kind” beauty.

each wall is filled with artwork, trinkets, photographs, or anything else that tells a story about their life, travels, and life-long political involvement.    gwen has such a green heart and is a big do-it-yourself-er, there are many great “recycled” art pieces throughout their home;  including a mosaic designed table from broken r.wood studio pieces that she collected throughout the years.  john is also an artist, his watercolors make several appearances throughout their home.

thanks gwen and john for sharing!   -kristen

When Gwen and John O’Looney bought their home in 1982, Cobb Street was not a status address.  Then Historic Cobbham was a blighted, mostly rental neighborhood with high crime and great risk of demolition.  “My mother cried the first time she saw the house,” laughs Gwen, “and said she’d never seen so much work in one place.”  Sixteen people lived in the two houses on the property.  John and Gwen took the front apartment and set about repairing holes in the floor and replacing cardboard walls.  Today, you can see that its renovation is an ongoing work of love for these two Do-It-Yourselfers.

Sited high off the street, you enter the O’Looney home through a Charleston side porch they added and live on most of the year.  “Natural Beauty” reads a marble J&J find from Victoria Secret that announces the feeling of this outside room so key to the O’Looney lifestyle.  Like the rest of the home, comfort is complimented by creative display of art, antiques and finds.

Since the porch is the main dining room, a 3-board primitive table is where most dinner parties are held.  “John is an excellent cook who can produce a full meal quicker than anyone I know,” Gwen explains, “I get to arrange the hors d’oevres and set the table with Rebecca Wood’s wonderful art.”   In his free time, the table becomes the studio for John, a self-taught water colorist who constantly challenges himself.  Art underlies an O’Looney collection that highlights local potters such as Rich Panico, David Morgan and many others.  When Gwen needed a narrow server for the porch table, she collected Rebecca Wood shards and created this mosaic table.  The centerpiece is a “found” piece of marble and the legs are covered with Victorian tin tiles.  “I love creating practical pieces by transforming trash treasures into what I think of as art,” she says.

Upon entering, visitors are greeted by one of the four fireplaces in the house and this one is filled with souvenirs from China and Vietnam, and the work of Georgia artists – Rich Panico, Andy Nasisse, Rebecca Wood and Howard Finster.  An early water color of the Palm Court in the Georgian Hotel and a portrait by John, hint at the versatility and wealth of his art found in every part of the house.

The old front porch of the house was closed in during the Depression and now serves as the living room and kitchen.  A lamp made from an art nouveau brass ice crusher centers the small corner “parlor” designed for comfortable intimacy with an eclectic mix of seating — a Hitchcock stationary rocker, an old Henredon sofa “off the street” and a turn of the century art nouveau settee found in a fruit stand in Bishop and now completely restored and covered in embroidered silk carried back from India.  Next to the Moriage Satsuma umbrella stand on a Victorian plant stand found in a barn in Madison, are four silk Thai temple rubbings brought back by O’Looney in 1969.  Below are WWII lacquered four season panels in semiprecious stones.  Valances were made for City Hall Council Chambers and bought by O’Looney at the annual surplus auction in 1990.

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