shawn michael ohara

So things in my life have taken me and my partner Anthony on a little detour over the last several months. Back in May we had big plans to sell our house, and all of our belongings and head west out to Seattle to start a new life on the west coast. Well we sold the house, and all of our belongings, but never made it to Seattle. About a month before we were to head west, Anthony became ill, and we were unable to make it to Seattle. We closed on the house at the end of June, and have been staying with my sister and brother in-law and our niece in Glen Aubrey New York, about 15 miles outside Binghamton New York. It is very beautiful here, and having family around has been a godsend helping me cope while Anthony slowly recovers.

The month after graduation was pure hell. I was trying to work, pack and sell our stuff, and get the house ready for closing, all while trying to care for Anthony while the Doctors tried to figure out what was going on with him. They never did, not in Rochester. I was able to get things all squared away with the house, and the closing went with out a hitch. I was able to get Anthony to my sisters house in Binghamton, and found some great Doctors who are taking really great care of Anthony’s condition.

What we know currently is that he is suffering from Trigeminal Neuralgia, a very painful inflammation of the facial nerves. It’s considered one of the most painful things to experience in the world. There were several times it seemed like the end of the world for both of us, especially after the forth ER visit in two weeks. But with the help and love of our family and friends, we have made it to a place where Ant seems to be out of the woods. He had been in bed since the end of May, but in recent weeks has been able to walk around the bedroom, and come out to the dinning room table and have dinner with us. They seem like small little steps, but I will take any I can get. I will keep you all posted with our progress. In the meantime we are adjusting to our  little life detour.

As I write this post, I am now a graduate from the College of Imagining Arts and Sciences at Rochester Institute of Technology, with a BFA in Interior Design, and a minor in Art History!

As seniors our last design project for our program was to research and design a cancer center. Considering it’s a large project, we broke into teams of 4 designers to be able to accomplish everything that the project required. The building that we designed had 4 levels so our team decided to divide the work up by floors. With each of performing all the research and designs for our floor. I selected the ground floor consisting of the radiation suites and vaults, the ultrasound suites, CT scanners, several exam rooms and the parking garage. The project was very intensive and took most of the 11 weeks of the quarter to complete. But in the end I feel our design was very tight, well thought out. I would have to believe out professor thought so as well, we received an A ;)

AS part of the presentation we were required to produce a design prospectus book that we left with our client, in our case our professor. Below is the cover that I designed for the prospectus. To see the whole presentation check it out in my portfolio under the Health Care page.

I just found out that I have been chosen to receive the Rochester New York, South District Civic Leadership Award for my work on Location19.org, my community social network that I created and run for Rochester’s 19th Ward neighborhood. I had no idea I was being considered for the award, I am very humbled to have even been considered. I created Location19.org because I saw a need to connect with others in my neighborhood. This award really belongs to all 200+ members of Location19.org! You all are what makes it work. Thank you ;)

-Shawn

I have been reaching out to some of the RIT Alumni that live in Seattle (thank you to all of you who have replied!). In this economy you never know what connection will lead you to a job, so I am trying everywhere I can.

For the last several weeks I also tried my had at placing a few Facebook ads, that I targeted to several large architectural design firms in Seattle that I would love to work for. I had the ad linked to my resume here on this site. I was very surprised an delighted by the amount of traffic I received, and by the number of times the ads appeared on someones Facebook page. I am definitely going to run s few more the closer I get to graduation.

Custom Fixture Design

I just completed another page for my portfolio. This one is for some of my custom fixture design work I do at Wegmans for my Internship. It’s pretty cool to think that something I designed has been actually built!

So for the last several weeks I have pulled together concepts, and design ideas for an Executive Bathroom remodel as part of my internship. This is my first design project that will actually be built, and was mine from concept to construction.

Today I met with the head of construction to go over the project for pricing. Today was the day I had to have all my ideas coalesced, developed and put down on paper. In typical fashion, almost to a fault, I was over prepared (At least in my own mind I was). But from the look on his face, John, the head of construction was pretty impressed. And with the meeting only lasting 15 minutes without any real questions, I feel I did a pretty good job.

The next step is to prepare the presentation boards. Funny how last year creating the presentation boards was a project itself. Now it will be one of the simplist things I do for this project! Progess :)

Some images of my egg tempera painting that I have been working on for my Panel Painting class. More to come!

Artist Michael Johansson knows how to get organized!
via: design*sponge
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Getting ready to head back to school. It’s my final year at RIT, and then out into the “real word”. Even though I have been here before (1991) It’s a little scary to think about finding a full time job, and wondering what part of the country we will wind up. Time will only tell!