BELLE — Maries County R-2 art teacher Rosanne K. Harrott arranged for 102 Bland Middle School and 25 Belle High School students to visit the Osage Arts Community (OAC) in Belle on Jan. 30 to view her featured graduate art show “Just Before a Kiss.”

Harrott introduced her work to five art classes throughout the day. The concept for the show began following the death of her husband, Bob Harrott, as she searched for a way to capture memories of them together. The result is a multi-media conception of various moments before a kiss.

Harrott took the time to explain the pieces to her students.

“It was a metamorphic concept,” she told them as she pointed out different mediums of her work. “I asked myself ‘What if I did this?’ and then thought, “Well, let’s try it.’”

Over the last two years, she has worked to capture spaces of forgotten memories, recognizing and reconstructing them into expressive mediums until they reflect who she is as a person and teacher. Scenes captured the intimate process of the stages of a kiss, formed as paint, clay, or photography, to reflect peaceful moments in her timeline.

Harrott asked students to view each medium and observe the difference in what it offers the viewer.

According to the exhibition description, a simple contour line on canvas can capture the emotional moment of something as intimate as a kiss. Carved into a body of functional pottery, the stages of a kiss can be much more useful than just lines on paper. Likewise, clay may take many different shapes, from functional to sculptural.

Following the exploration of contour lines and clay, she furthered her exploration on canvas, creating new textures and colors. She viewed the contours of a kiss as a road map from start to finish.

“She finally used her stages of a kiss to go back to the clay medium by creating functional mugs to go along with the open containers of her stages of a kiss,” according to the exhibition description.

Students viewed the mugs and bowls displayed throughout the room with interest.

Additional paintings included three-dimensional pictures of pencil shavings, marbles masquerading as acorns, gemstones, sunsets and sunrises.

“Rosanne’s journey was just beginning which caused a collision of conceptual and metamorphic thoughts,” the exhibition description detailed. “Rosanne recognized and captured spaces of memories and used those memories to help create metamorphic moments through her journey of gaining her master’s degree in art education.”

The Osage Arts Community is open on Saturday from 11 to 3 p.m., at which time a closing reception will be held from 1 and 3 p.m., celebrating the artist and allowing purchase arrangements to be made.

For more information about the artist, the show, or Osage Arts Community, call 573-943-6956 or visit Osageac.org.