He has a BA in Economics and Political Science from McGill University and a Master's degree in Library Science from Simmons College in Boston. His serious engagement with visual art began when he attended drawing classes taught by Bill Flynn at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. He moved from Boston to Moscow, VT in 1975, and then to Montpelier in 1980. Until his recent retirement, Woods worked for the Vermont Department of Libraries, where he served as the film librarian and later as the director of the Talking Book Library for the Blind. For the past thirty five years, he has spent virtually all of his free time painting and drawing.