Wyndell was born into a family of water well drillers in the small town of Broadway Virginia in 1960. He developed an interest in art from his Mother, who was always involved in doing arts and crafts. He received a BFA in art from James Madison University in 1983 with an emphasis on painting and glass. While attending James Madison, one of Wyndell’s painting teachers, Jerry Coulter, became a big influence for his artwork. Working with joint compound he builds up surfaces and then carves, sands and then paints the surfaces with acrylic and oil paints
However, glass still held a bigger draw for Wyndell. Starting in stained glass, a summer at Pilchuck Glass School introduced him to glass blowing and he spent the next 15 years devoted to glass blowing, attending Pilchuck, Pratt Fine Arts and Penland School of Crafts, before opening his own public-access studio in Washington, DC.