Todd Smith was born in Arizona and grew up in Louisville, Kentucky. He graduated from Amherst College with a BA in Studio Art and spent the next eleven years making art about climbing trees and teaching art to children of all ages. In 2016, Todd graduated from SUNY Buffalo with an MFA in Studio Art and Emerging Practices. While in Buffalo, he taught foundation courses in public art, digital photography, and digital foundations. From the fall of 2016 to the spring of 2021, Todd taught various college art courses for universities in the Louisville area. His expertise includes drawing and illustration, photography and video, sculpture and public art, and 2D and 3D design.

Todd's art practice has included a wide variety of media, including performative long-exposure photography, functional human nests in trees, and a public sound art project about cycling and the environment. From 2007 to 2010, Todd climbed a different tree every day, recording his experiences in a blog, taking pictures and video, and drawing inspiration for art projects from the treetops. He now takes his love of trees and the environment and creates interactive public projects highlighting our impacts on the natural world.

Besides climbing, Todd loves to travel and explore new places on foot, walking streets, and running trails.