David McLeod attended Vanderbilt University (magna cum laude, 2007), where he finished with a Bachelors of Science in Engineering and a Bachelors of Arts in Studio Art. In the summer before starting his studies, he began a four-year-long apprenticeship with artist Michael Shane Neal that ran his entire college term. These countless hours formed a foundation firmly set in the appreciation of the past and the tireless pursuit of excellence.
In only a few years as a professional artist, McLeod has already garnered attention for his fresh brushwork and sensitivity to human emotion. He was included in Southwest Art Magazine’s 21 Under 31: Emerging Artists feature article and has received multiple awards from the Portrait Society of America.
McLeod strives with each painting to find the convergence of excellence, accessibility, and provocation. It is, he believes, the best way to not only say something but also be heard. He is a member of Oil Painters of America, American Impressionist Society, and Portrait Society of America.
When we were children, we gave ourselves boxes with screens. Now they are just screens, and they fit in our hands. What will tomorrow’s screens do? And so we yearn--yearn for the newest; for the next; for thinner, brighter, and cleaner. But we don’t call them anything nasty, for they are precious to us, always with us. And we place ourselves into these machines. We compose, we edit, we comb for any errors; we yearn to be seen as thinner, brighter, cleaner. And we can with our new machines.
What happens when the machine is removed? When it dies? When it’s just human and human? What do we expect of each other?
“But Where Am I To Look?”
“Human”
“I Want To See Your Eyes”
“Status”
“How Deep Go Thy Roots?”
