Born and raised in Genesee County, Wood has always enjoyed working with his hands. His passion for art began at young age when he would pick up a pencil to sketch. The Batavia High School art program, especially teacher Mary Tyler, was influential to him. After high school he went to Rochester Institute of Technology where he earned a BFA in Commercial Art and a MFA in Art Education.

He taught at the junior high level for 12 years. For three years, he studied at the Art Students League in Manhattan concentrating in oil painting and fine art, at which time he became serious about painting. For ten years, he worked in commercial art for the graphics department at Sikorsky Aircraft in Connecticut. Around this time he took lessons from Carol Hubbard.

In 1991, he came back to Batavia to teach at Genesee Community College as an adjunct instructor. He is a member of the Batavia Society of Artists. He has also won numerous awards in juried art shows throughout the northeast. Today, he paints mostly in watercolors.