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Schwager to serve as president-elect of Pennsylvania Bar Association

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Johnny Mathis, ‘The Voice of Romance,’ returns to Kirby Center July 25

<p>KINGSTON &#8212; Challenging sculptor Elizabeth Jenkins Culp to &#8220;get in touch with (her) darker side,&#8221; an acquaintance once suggested she &#8220;do something about war.&#8221;</p><p>Culp agreed to give it a try, but her natural optimism led her to recreate one of the happiest moments you can associate with a military campaign &#8212; a homecoming.</p><p>The result is the figure, cast in bronze, of a woman who has flung herself into the arms of her loved one, who is bent backward, caught by her exuberant momentum.</p><p>You find similar evidence of life&#8217;s joyful moments throughout the exhibit at Mainstreet Galleries in Kingston, where gallery director Sally Casey has arranged &#8220;Two Voices Between Light and Form,&#8221; juxtaposing sculptures by Culp, of Hunlock Creek, with paintings by Sharon Cosgrove, of Wilkes-Barre.</p><p>If you visit, you&#8217;ll see how Casey arranged the art in complementary ways so that, for example, the angle of Culp&#8217;s reunited lovers, corresponds to the angle of flying geese in one of Cosgrove&#8217;s paintings.</p><p>&#8220;I was here for seven hours looking for the best way to arrange them,&#8221; Casey said, noting Mainstreet Galleries is 50 years old this year and &#8220;in honor of the anniversary, we want to have a year of especially beautiful exhibits.&#8221;</p><p>There&#8217;s plenty of beauty here &#8212; in images of flowers and birds and gardens, in celebrations of the human form, even in, let&#8217;s say, knowing you have a partner who cares enough to &#8220;walk all over Manhattan&#8221; with you as you search for a pair of shoes.</p><p>&#8220;This is all about the shoes,&#8221; Cosgrove said of a painting that depicts a room at the Waldorf-Astoria where she and her husband stayed on a trip to New York City.</p><p>A pair of stylish shoes is bathed in light on the hotel room floor and, Cosgrove explained, &#8220;I&#8217;m a shopper and I saw these shoes in a window but I had to walk around Manhattan all day and look at other shoes&#8221; before returning to the original store for the shoes she had noticed first.</p><p>Another Cosgrove painting shows a young woman with a suitcase standing in a doorway. Inside, a child&#8217;s toys are scattered on the floor. Outside, a harbor beckons.</p><p>&#8220;She&#8217;s emblematic of many of my students,&#8221; said Cosgrove, who teaches art at Wilkes University and notices that, while many students are eager to graduate, they also feel hesitant about leaving the familiar. &#8220;They suddenly want to linger.&#8221;</p><p>You may find you want to linger in the gallery, perhaps examining some of Cosgrove&#8217;s bird paintings which, the artist said, &#8220;started as a meditation.&#8221;</p><p>&#8220;You see these horizontal lines?&#8221; she asked. &#8220;I sat outdoors in a beautiful garden with a bamboo calligraphic brush. Push and lift and push and lift. When you apply pressure you get a widening, so it&#8217;s thick, thin, thick, thin.&#8221;</p><p>There are stories behind Culp&#8217;s sculptures, too.</p><p>Her inspiration for the reunion of the returning soldier and his mate came from a meeting she and other military wives had with their spouses who were returning from the Persian Gulf.</p><p>&#8220;You can&#8217;t hold that position for more than a moment,&#8221; Culp said of the way the woman is almost airborne and the man is leaning so far back.</p><p>Describing herself as &#8220;intrigued by relationships,&#8221; the artist pointed out that, with the bronze couples she has created, it can be difficult to see where one ends and the other begins.</p><p>One of her male figures is embracing a female so tightly, Culp said, &#8220;people have told me, &#8216;I want someone to hold me like that, holding on for dear life.&#8217; &#8220;</p><p>&#8220;Another figure, one of a solitary man, is based on a live model. &#8220;I call it &#8216;Veneer&#8217; because sometimes I wonder what goes beneath the surface,&#8221; she said, admitting she marvels at the confidence of models who are willing to pose nude.</p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">Sharon Cosgrove&#8217;s paintings and Elizabeth Jenkins Culp&#8217;s sculptures are being featured in a joint show titled &#8216;Two Voices Between Light and Form&#8217; at Mainstreet Galleries in Kingston.  </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/web1_TTL041319mainstreet5.jpg</photo0><caption0>Sharon Cosgrove&#8217;s paintings and Elizabeth Jenkins Culp&#8217;s sculptures are being featured in a joint show titled &#8216;Two Voices Between Light and Form&#8217; at Mainstreet Galleries in Kingston.  </caption0><photoCredit0>Aimee Dilger | Times Leader </photoCredit0></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/web1_TTL041319mainstreet1.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Elizabeth Jenkins Culp&#8217;s sculpture of a draped female figure corresponds to the statues in gardens painted by Sharon Cosgrove. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo1>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/web1_TTL041319mainstreet1.jpg</photo1><caption1>Elizabeth Jenkins Culp&#8217;s sculpture of a draped female figure corresponds to the statues in gardens painted by Sharon Cosgrove. </caption1><photoCredit1>Aimee Dilger | Times Leader </photoCredit1></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/web1_TTL041319mainstreet2.jpg">
<div class="neCaption"> Sharon Cosgrove&#8217;s painting of a stately building with manicured landcaping is flanked by two of Elizabeth Jenkins Culp&#8217;s sculptures of couples locked in embrace. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo2>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/web1_TTL041319mainstreet2.jpg</photo2><caption2> Sharon Cosgrove&#8217;s painting of a stately building with manicured landcaping is flanked by two of Elizabeth Jenkins Culp&#8217;s sculptures of couples locked in embrace. </caption2><photoCredit2>Aimee Dilger | Times Leader </photoCredit2></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/web1_TTL041319mainstreet3.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Elizabeth Jenkins Culp&#8217;s sculptures of couples are designed in such a way that it can be difficult to tell where one figure ends and the other begins. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo3>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/web1_TTL041319mainstreet3.jpg</photo3><caption3>Elizabeth Jenkins Culp&#8217;s sculptures of couples are designed in such a way that it can be difficult to tell where one figure ends and the other begins. </caption3><photoCredit3>Aimee Dilger | Times Leader </photoCredit3></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/web1_TTL041319mainstreet4.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">The leaping woman in the bronze sculpture and the flying geese in the painting are all moving in the same direction. That&#8217;s just one of the ways gallery director Sally Casey found connections between Elizabeth Jenkins Culp&#8217;s sculptures and Sharon Cosgrove&#8217;s paintings, which are both featured in the exhibit &#8216;Two Voices Between Light and Form.&#8217; </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo4>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/web1_TTL041319mainstreet4.jpg</photo4><caption4>The leaping woman in the bronze sculpture and the flying geese in the painting are all moving in the same direction. That&#8217;s just one of the ways gallery director Sally Casey found connections between Elizabeth Jenkins Culp&#8217;s sculptures and Sharon Cosgrove&#8217;s paintings, which are both featured in the exhibit &#8216;Two Voices Between Light and Form.&#8217; </caption4><photoCredit4>Aimee Dilger | Times Leader </photoCredit4></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><subheadMeta>Exhibit includes paintings, sculptures</subheadMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Mary Therese Biebel</p><p>mbiebel@www.timesleader.com</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><factboxMeta><p><strong>IF YOU GO</strong></p><p><strong>What:</strong> Two Voices Between Light and Form</p><p><strong>Who:</strong> An exhibit of paintings by Sharon Cosgrove and sculptures by Elizabeth Jenkins Culp</p><p><strong>When:</strong> Opening reception 5 to 8 p.m. Saturday, April 13</p><p><strong>Where:</strong> Mainstreet Galleries, 370 Pierce St., Kingston</p><p><strong>Info:</strong> 570-287-5589</p></factboxMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Reach Mary Therese Biebel at 570-991-6109 or on Twitter @BiebelMT</p></shirttailMeta></div>

‘Two Voices’ opens at Mainstreet Galleries