Artist Roster

Jordan McClements, a Native American and Native Alaskan artist and writer from Dover, Delaware, has published over 60 essays on the overdose crisis in Resonance FM London, The Chicago Tribune, The Philadelphia Inquirer, Delaware News Journal, Delaware State News, and various Arts Mags. McClements is an essayist from the Story Workshop Method taught from Don De Grazia, who wrote the American Classic, American Skin, Don De Grazia was his guru in SGI Buddhism in Chicago and was McClements' thesis advisor at Columbia College Chicago for McClements' MFA in Creative Writing 23'. As an essayist McClements' work gives the portraiture of his oil paintings to the John Elways' of the overdose crisis and homeless crisis in Delaware. McClements' self portraits have been seen in print and online at Delaware News Journal and Delaware State News. McClements' paintings are currently for sale at Studio B Milford in Milford, Delaware.

I lost my cousin. We have to help addicts choose life | OpinionJordan McClements:Special to the USA TODAY NetworkJuly 24, 2026, 11:00 a.m. ETDear Cousin Lee,It’s July 24, 2026 — National Cousins Day. It's been seven years you’ve been gone. You write through me now after the fireworks are gone, and I’m witnessing the man I nickname John Elway, You’re alive in your black T-shirt now instead of a Broncos jersey, the same black hat, almost tilted back further than before, and your beard is lightened red from the sun on your arched shoulders. You have a slight stoop and arched neck in your sport sunglasses on the median of my hometown’s drag strip. You walk between competing local gas station empires with an older woman in a screaming wheelchair behind you now — carrying two 32-oz. iced tea jugs for $3.99 each — as you walk toward us with your sign. Change, please. God helps. You are our mirror, John Elway. You are who we don’t know how to help; you are us. You are who we couldn’t help choose life. We allowed you to slip and we are all witnesses, realizing the change you’re seeking isn’t strictly monetary. We are you. Our collective inability to help our neighbors and be helpers shows we didn't watch Mr. Rogers, America. Mr. Rogers said, "look for the helpers."Where are the helpers? John Elway watches us pass him by repeatedly, everyday.This original artwork, which addresses Delaware and America's opioid overdose crisis, is part of an exhibition of Jordan McClements' work that has been on display at the Dover Art League in autumn 2025.We don’t look in the mirror besides when we try to banish it like we banish John Elway, the mirror we betray.John Elway is on the median. If there were services, someone would be helping him. We don’t act as neighbors, friends, family or government and we are shameful. We don’t do boots-on-the- ground work now. I’m not going to list what we need, yet. You know what we need. It’s inside you.I’ll be your mirror. I’ll bleed first so you don’t have to lose a loved one to overdose like I did more than once to lack of services and connected services in the United States. I overdosed.I lost you, Cousin, Lee, Robert Leroy McClements III to overdose. My uncle, Sunbear, overdosed. Muh Mum McClements buried her first born grandson. Muh Mum’s great grandsons — “Robby” Robert Leroy McClements IV and Tegan McClements — have lost their father. You. My cousin Lee. Are dead. And it could have been prevented. It’s not a moral failure when you. Lee. Told me you couldn’t quit and the last time you shot me up there was no dope in the needle. I felt nothing. My cousin Lee, you did that for me. What does that specifically mean? You. My cousin Lee not only saved me after an overdose in 2017, you, Lee, saved me from heroin whether you brought me in or not because ultimately you loved me enough to save me to write this. What does America 250 mean now?Now after the fireworks are gone, what does America 250 mean to you, John Elway?None of us have stepped up to learn or tell your story or help you choose life. Specifically, what does it mean to you for America to have survived 250 years? How many years do you have left, John Elway? If you symbolize America, and you're our mirror, John, how long until we, America, stop surviving?John, how can we, America, change?Choose life.For John Elway.Stop banishing the panhandlers, homeless and addicts.Start demanding.Where are the frontline services, America?Next time I see John Elway, I’m going to speak to him and give him something to survive and choose life.Even though I met you and made you out to be this thing and I want to know you and your story. It’s worth saving, telling and protecting. I’m Jordan McClements. Let’s talk. What are you about? What all went down to get you here?What do you need to get on track for something better?Give him money.Are you on the asphalt with John Elway?If so, you are the hero.Give him a coffee and a sandwich or sunglasses.Give him something.Hand this to your loved one, America.We can only stop our cars and give John Elway our time, and we've been cowards.We have to do better for John Elway. For Delaware. For America.I’ve written about John Elway, and that doesn’t equal time — the one thing we all crave and seek. Why can’t giving John Elway our time save all our lives?You deserve better than panhandling. I care about you, John Elway, and staying in the street is if you don't want to change. I see you with the sign, I know you want to change, but you're like me, you're afraid of leaving comfort. Look, I don't care. We both have to change, John Elway.I needed help but I didn't want it. I chose the Trainspotting lifestyle. I got what drugs give you. An overdose. A death. A haunting. A memory of my cousin. A memory of myself. A paralyzed uncle. Dead friends and family. That's what I'm fighting for. For me and John Elway to choose life. John Elway, we're better than this. We deserve better than this. We have to choose life.You can spend $100,000 on every addict in America and, until we choose life, no one will save us. We have to want to save ourselves every day for the rest of our lives like me and John Elway.Elway's out here begging for change on the asphalt and I’m still asking for change in the opinion section, but I'm asking you and I to change, John. I see myself in you, John. I see you as America — the mirror I pass by to know I’m alive but too afraid to face. But now that I see myself in the mirror, I see you as someone with a lot of potential to change the world in a positive place. That's something I know, John. Let's go forward now so you change a sustainable path of life. I'll be there, I'll help you.Jordan McClements is a writer who lives in Dover.