Plymouth Township’s Art & Ideas Gallery finds local artists Charles Aimone and Joan Painter Jones grappling with the two sides of their “Inner Worlds and Animals.”

It’s an interesting combination since animals are, of course, definitely outer-world and inner world is—well, inner, by definition.

But appearances are always deceiving with Jones’ remarkably complex artwork and Aimone’s animal-oriented abstract renderings meld quite nicely with her muscular mixed-media constructions. The Arts & Ideas Gallery has done a good job of mingling both artists’ penchant for bobbing and weaving from one psychological dimension to the other.

Northville’s Charles Aimone contributes the larger part of the animals (mostly dogs) in the display. His paintings are relatively small in scale — although a couple of significant compositions are rather oversized — being simplified compositions that use vivid colors to heighten their emotional state.

As the Art & Ideas gallery statement tells us, Aimone often features animals as “the central image of his paintings, surrounded by abstract elements. The content of his paintings is based on the premise that dogs (and other animals) possess an innate intelligence that humans do not understand.”

Fair enough — maybe, like the current Ann Arbor Gallery Project “Animal Farm” also claims — animals do have a logic that differs from our reasoning capacity.

On the other hand, Aimone says in his artist’s statement, “My paintings are the dance of light and the hope of childhood innocence. It is in part a reaction against and denial of tragedy. The paintings interact in the moment by the use of color and line.”

This accounts for the flashy art brut in Aimone’s vibrant expression. For example, “110-016 9 (‘red dog’)” from his “Dog Series” is a thickly rendered portrait that seems childlike. Aimone’s flattened “red dog” (with a colorful blue ear) occupies the center of the composition; surrounded by red, green, brown, and yellow paint strokes that tassel the work’s edges. The work is sufficiently naïve to appear thoroughly brut, but there’s also a sophisticated palette at work that structures the effort.

This same understated aptitude is at work in Aimone’s masterly “06-19-2010-1 (‘numbers’)” where three large semi-circles rimming the bottom of the large composition are contrasted against a sunny egg yolk in the work’s upper-right corner. Disparately scaled profiles of a duck, car, rabbit, rooster and cow run along the painting’s outer circumference (something like the spinning targets at an arcade shooting gallery) as they wind their way around the most outer-circle’s fringe. The only tell-tale signs of a professional at work are the ground glass and acrylics that are far too sufficiently placed to be accidental. It’s telling that Aimone is striving to simplify his vision—and it’s obvious from his work — this is no simple feat.

Perhaps the most telling contrast, therefore, between Aimone’s art and Joan Painter Jones assemblage is the fact that he’s essentially working from the inside world toward the outside world, while she’s doing the opposite.

One of this region’s most intriguing talents through these last two decades, Jones’ neo-Dada sculpture — wall-mounted, framed, or free-standing — is precisely structured in its rough-hewn way. Her art reflects an unmistakable rebellious strength. The Milan resident’s penchant for working with scraps makes her a pure artist of detritus: wood, metal, found objects, and other such media.

Jones says of her art, “different viewers see different things.” She then adds, “This assemblage work evolves and becomes what it will by the objects I find in my barn studio and how I end up putting them together—from the jumble of materials I have picked up from roadsides, parts of things my husband no longer wants or are discarded, and things friends have given me.”

Art & Ideas fleshes out the issue a bit with its gallery statement: “Some (of Jones’) works evoke old machines that might have worked long ago, while others seem to be pieced-together life-forms that look as if they could become animated, alive, and aware any moment.”

When in doubt, vote for the latter. Among this sort of assemblage contributed to the display are “Containment,” “AJ’s UFO” and “Joan of Arc” where the art goes from quirky to thoroughly abstract. The metal, paint, and wood “AJ’s UFO” is a miniature marvel. Crafting a flying machine solely out of recycled refuse; Jones takes old chunks of electronics with clumps of metal (and a handsome wooden propeller) to create an airplane out of nothing.

“Joan of Arc” takes rusted metal, clay, acrylics, and wood to create a haunting bust that actually resembles a model wearing a coat of armor. And the thoroughly abstract “Containment” suggests a cell made out of nothing more than scrap metal, wood, fence, chain, and paint.

Still, the find in “Inner Worlds & Animals” is Jones’ “Note to Self (wings)” painting that carries her back some two decades to her Painter days while also incorporating her aesthetic signature.

This oversized work incorporates acrylics, cloth and wood that’s so overworked, it literally bursts from its frame with winged planks jutting from the borders. Overlaying found materials that are in turn braced together with clothing and rope, the work is a cacophony of broken colorfields and energetic doodling pureed to a forceful finish. The work ultimately tells us all we need know of her hearty view of art: Why work with material, when you can make it work for you?

“Inner Worlds & Animals: Charles Aimone and Joan Painter Jones” will continue through July 31 at Art & Ideas, 15095 Northville Road, Plymouth Township. Exhibit hours are 5 to-7 p.m. Tuesday-Thursday; and 1-8 p.m. Friday and Saturday. For information, call 734-420-0775.