Exploring identity, perception, and the human psyche through innovative techniques in oil on glass
David Bruce McLeod is a painter and materials artist whose work explores identity, perception, and the human psyche through innovative techniques in oil on glass and contemporary materials. His practice challenges traditional notions of portraiture by creating multilayered works that reveal the complex nature of consciousness and self.
Working primarily with oil paint on tempered glass, McLeod develops images that exist in multiple dimensions simultaneously. The transparency of glass allows him to build layers of meaning, creating portraits that shift and transform as viewers move around them, mirroring the fluid nature of identity itself.
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.
"All these works suggest the power of the internal over the external—of the unconscious over the conscious—but nowhere is its power more evident than in David McLeod's Untitled Hologram of Time, 2016 and Portrait of a Spinning Man, 2015. McLeod's portrait literally spins—it's attached to a device that makes it spin and quiver—suggesting the power of the unconscious to make one's head spin. In the hologram his face fragments as it moves through time, suggesting the power of the unconscious to fragment the self."
David Bruce McLeod attended Vanderbilt University (magna cum laude, 2007), where he finished with a Bachelor of Science in Engineering and a Bachelor of Arts in Studio Art. This unique combination of technical precision and artistic vision continues to inform his innovative approach to materials and techniques.
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. As his mentor taught him: "You are an artist first, not a painter or a drawer, but an artist."
An interesting detail: McLeod's engineering background manifests in unexpected ways. As a child, he loved building with LEGOS and thought he might have a future in designing their products. Today, many of the tools he uses in his studio are things he has made himself, blending his technical skills with his artistic practice.
Detail from Untitled Hologram of Time
McLeod's innovative approach to oil painting on tempered glass creates a unique visual language. By painting on both sides of the glass surface, he achieves a depth and luminosity impossible with traditional canvas. This technique allows for a physical separation of pictorial elements that becomes a metaphor for the layered nature of human consciousness.
His work often incorporates kinetic elements and holographic techniques, pushing the boundaries between painting and sculpture, between static image and dynamic experience. These works invite viewers into an active relationship with the art, where their movement and perspective directly affect what they see.
When working on larger studio pieces, McLeod's mind is constantly darting to the scores of small sketches he made prior to starting as well as to various other sources of inspiration. If he can integrate the mood of a folk song or the taste of a fine Belgian beer, then he has succeeded as an artist.
Oil paint on tempered glass, kinetic mechanisms, holographic elements, layered transparency, experimental surface treatments, and custom-built tools.
Style: Painterly realism with equal value given to both medium and subject.
Oil Painters of America • American Impressionist Society • Portrait Society of America
Portrait of a Spinning Man
At the heart of McLeod's work is an investigation into what lies beneath the surface of human identity. He is fascinated by the tension between how we present ourselves to the world and the complex, often contradictory internal landscape of thoughts, memories, and unconscious drives that actually shape who we are.
His paintings are not meant to capture a single moment or expression, but rather to suggest the multiplicity of selves that exist within each person. The layered glass, the movement, the fragmentation—all of these formal choices serve to visualize the psychological truth that identity is never fixed, never singular, but always in flux.
"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?"
Through his work, McLeod invites viewers to consider their own relationship with self-perception and to question the reliability of appearances. In an age of carefully curated personas and digital avatars, his art reminds us that the human psyche remains beautifully, mysteriously complex.
McLeod's creative spark comes from the world around him and his relationships with his wife and closest friends. Other artists, living and dead, continue to inspire his practice. Music, movies, and books all play a role in shaping his artistic vision—he particularly admires Ray Bradbury's ability to react to the world around him and integrate his art with life.
Beyond painting, McLeod is an accomplished cook, considering it another creative canvas to work on. This attention to sensory experience—taste, smell, texture—informs his approach to the visual and tactile qualities of his paintings.
McLeod works from his studio, where he maintains a rigorous practice informed by both his engineering precision and artistic intuition. His process involves extensive preliminary sketches and careful material experimentation, always pushing the boundaries of what oil on glass can achieve.
A holographic portrait that fragments as it moves through time, exploring the unconscious fragmentation of the self.
view workA kinetic portrait mounted on a spinning mechanism, physically embodying the psychological vertigo of internal conflict and the power of the unconscious mind.
view workAn exploration of the delicate balance between independence and connection in human relationships.
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