I was born Seán Aloysius O'Hara on Cinco de Mayo, 1954, in the Santa Clara Valley, California. Consequently, there was always a big celebration on my birthday!
At that time, the agricultural period of this fertile valley, now known as 'Silicon Valley', was just starting to come to an end, but there were many rural experiences to be had by a young child. I can recall noticing quite a few specific plants in my surroundings - it was only years later that their identities were revealed to me as I studied botany and horticulture.
My paternal grandmother was known to be a very good gardener, able to grown virtually "anything she touched" according to my father. I can vividly recall her garden and its plants, as well as how much I enjoyed it during our visits to her Central Valley home of Fresno.
Early on, my parents realized my talent in the arts. In the second grade, our teacher had all her students contribute a section to a landscape 'mural' on a long roll of butcher paper. I can recall the 3D perspective of my scene could not easily be 'matched up' to the more typical flat, two dimensional work of my peers on either side. Soon I was attending private art lessons on the weekends.
I think it was a high school biology class that really got me hooked on botany - I was excited to realize that there was a whole scientific discipline based upon the green living things of our planet. Starting to read any book available to me, even frequenting a local college library (I was required to read those books on site, being ineligible for a library card!), I started to teach myself the subject, later augmenting that knowledge with formal education.
When I reached college, my life-long interest in the visual arts was merging with my scientific interests. I briefly considered a career in scientific illustration and studied under another botanical artist who appointed herself as my mentor. The career in which I later found myself was Information Technology (that's another story) but I have continued to employ my drawing skills throughout my life.
Throughout this time, friends came to see me as a resource not only for horticultural information, but also for the planning and design of spaces. Before long, I was doing landscape consultations and occasionally designing gardens. This continued for the next 30 years.
Working in the computer industry meant that I was aware of how technology was making changes in the world - as it was happening. In 1994, when e-mail communication was becoming more widespread, I was able to express my interest in botany/horticulture through the formation of the Medit-Plants e-mail forum, devoted to plants and landscapes of the world's mediterranean climates. This forum continues to this day, still bringing together gardeners in far-flung but otherwise very similar regions of the world.
I find the wonderful thing about the natural sciences is that there is always something more to learn regardless of how much you already know. Aesthetics comes rather intuitively to me and it is always a pleasure to be able to evaluate the world from this creative perspective.
