Ted won his first art show at age 6 after copying a flamingo that one of the older kids drew. The guilt of this image appropriation has followed him ever since.

Ted started painting for real in 1987 when a friend gave him some paint for Christmas with a card that read, “You keep saying you are an artist, paint!” Seven months later Ted sold 8 of the 11 paintings exhibited in his first show. Since that first show Ted’s work has been displayed in museums on 3 continents.

Much of Ted’s work has been influenced by his dealings with the health care system and his own health problems. Born with Gaucher’s disease, often his earlier works depict contorted, pained and highly designed skeletal images. This series titled “Structural Abnormalities” was initially created in the months before his first round of hip replacements.

In recent years with the advent of new treatments and additional joint replacements Ted considers himself normal and healthy. His work has shifted from “Ted-centric” to images that highlight other people’s health problems. His “Scarred for Life, Monoprints of Human Scars” series chronicles those events that suddenly changed people’s lives.

Ted concurrently works on the “Insights on Co-Dependency” series of stylized and brightly colored multi-figure oil paintings and his “Awkward Children” series depicting children in hapless situations.

Ted is also a freelance designer, writer and illustrator. He has written and illustrated 4 books. “Shrink Yourself: The Complete do-it-Yourself Book of Freudian Psychoanalysis”, “The Butt Hello - And Other Reasons My Cats Drive Me Crazy”, “Cats Around the World.” and “Good Things You Can Learn from A Bad Relationship”.

Ted has held teaching positions at Brooks College in Long Beach, CA and California State University at Northridge. He is the Artist in Residence at UCLA Geffen School of Medicine and a Visiting Scholar at the National Museum of Health and Medicine in Bethesda Maryland.