Ted graduated from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. Throughout his high school and college years he studied painting and sculpture at the Art Students League of New York, the National Academy School of Design, and Vassar College. He has copied works at the Louvre, Prado, and the Metropolitan Museum, where he subsequently taught a class in copying master works. After co-founding the animation house AMPnyc, he studied at the Water Street Atelier. The lure of the studio led him to leave his animation company to fully devote himself to painting. He is the co-host of the podcast Suggested Donation.