In "NOW AND AGAIN" (2015), "Since Oklahoma After Johns Before Tomorrow SPLC" (2015), and "State of the Union $1.5 TrillionXX - a pair" (2018), McClelland’s American landscape paintings refer to the blind contour method of drawing taught early in every artist’s education: if one keeps an eye on the subject and allows the hand to draw what is seen, the result is often understood as closer to the truth, yet far from recognizable. How do we share what we see? Since the 1995 Oklahoma City Bombing, the FBI has tracked domestic terror, but not so deeply and broadly as the Southern Poverty Law Center, which creates interactive maps tracking the movement and spread of extremist groups in the United States. McClelland uses these maps as a guide for an ongoing body of work addressing our 'state of the union'. Every year, the artist draws the American landscape in blind contour, using this method as an observational tool to reconnect with the nation’s borders, contributing to a fuller portrait of an increasingly divided and uncertain country. Individual characters make words, but are neutral until used. Numbers contribute and guide data, but only context creates meaning. In "Since Oklahoma After Johns Before Tomorrow SPLC" (2015), McClelland shows that painting can remove the grid, abstract the map, and offer a space for further reading and seeing.