Todd Segal

Todd is an artist and craftsman whose unique attention to detail and eye for design come from a lifetime of experience in the fine arts and practical knowledge obtained by his work as a builder and furniture maker.

It all started as a young boy growing up in Los Angeles painting side by side with his Grandfather, himself a professional designer and painter.  "We spent our weekends working on the easel with paints and building projects out of wood.  He was my idol, my inspiration, and sometimes my most harshest of critics". 

Todd's life was also engulfed with art during his school years, earning him two of the highest fine arts achievement awards for each level of study.  At the early age of 13, his work was exhibited at the Los Angeles Music Center, where he was even offered Fifty Dollars for one of his pastel drawings.  "It felt more like Fifty Thousand at that time.  I was very flattered, but ended up giving the piece to my father instead". 

At the age of Twenty, Todd recalls a job he had building the whole interior of a prestigious gallery in Venice, California.  All cabinets were to have special paint applications and needed to incorporate large fish tanks in them.  This was a job that would later gain him a reputation in form, function and unusual design. 

Todd's woodworking endeavors began with chairs made completely by hand on a foot-powered lathe and building "period" cabinetry.  He then graduated on to building large timber frame barns and animal shelters, to restoring old houses.  "I felt limited on the canvas and wanted to put my creativity to more practical applications with my woodwork.  Form and function is what it's all about". 

With the hopes of exposing his artistry to a wider audience, Todd, with the help of his wife, decided to debut "Useful Art and Design".  "After years of working on a limited basis, I'm finally putting my applications of artistic design and straight-forward building to work full time.  The problem with much of the work done today is that it's built to conform to too many rules.  I want to use the rules and go beyond them, but not be dictated by them".