Todd White was born in Queen Charlotte City (now known as Daajing Giids) on Christmas day in 1963 and began making art at a very young age, producing pieces dating as far back as 1979. As a child, his father, Morris White, had changed careers from Commercial fishing to a full time Carver, carving out of his family home while Todd was growing up.

Beginning his process with drawings and expanding into carving, he started with argillite - a black slate found on Haida Gwaii, but swiftly moved into wood carving. He spent some time working with his brother, Christian White, making bases for Christian’s sculptures, and cutting down pieces of argillite. While in school, he worked in Print-making, photography and wood/metal work then made the move into working with Silver and Gold in the 1980s. Todd acquired much of skill by watching how his father, Morris and his Auntie, Joan Hart work and by working on his own projects.

He continued working with his father throughout much of the early years of his career, as time went on he started working on larger projects and started learning how to make traditional dugout canoes and paddles; later working on a number of Totem poles along side his family.

Todd has become well known for his impeccable engraving work; he works in stages as he scribes, cross hatches, chisels and gouges intricate Haida designs into silver and gold. He comes up with the designs intuitively, balancing the positive and negative spaces in an effective and proportionate way; focusing on a beautiful design and carefully executing the engraving. He works on a commission basis, so each piece is created with a specific person in mind, he’s relied on word-of-mouth method of promotion of his work.

Todd resides and work out of his home located in Old Massett, Haida Gwaii. He plans to continue his work in metal, and is focused on passing down his knowledge to the younger generation. He also continues to work in wood and has aspirations of working in print mediums in the future.