'He Said, She Said' pairs work by two artists By MACKENZIE WHITE, ThisWeek Staff Writer Painter John A. Daniels said fellow artist Ginny Baughman coined the title "He Said, She Said" for their exhibit at Gallery 202. "And I just went with it," Daniels said. "I've learned long ago not to argue with women." "He Said, She Said --- An Investigation of the Human Form," which runs through Aug. 26 at the gallery, 38 N. State St., brings the age-old battle of the sexes to the art world. On Baughman's part, she was a bit apprehensive when Gallery 202 owner Renee Kropat paired her and Daniels together. "I don't know John very well," Baughman said. "I wasn't so sure about it." That changed when the artwork went up. "When she hung our artwork together, it was amazing how it actually fit together ... the colors," Baughman said. "Our colors mirror each other." Anderson's 13 paintings investigate the human form through full figures, partial figures and faces. Most are nudes, several are clothed. He called one "risque." "It's going to be a little shocking, I think, for Westerville," Baughman said. That would be fine with Daniels. "I think some people need to have their boats rocked once in a while," he said. Baughman, who lives in Westerville, moved into three-dimensional artwork with this exhibit. In the past, she focused on two-dimensional work, such as architectural and landmark paintings of Westerville. (She sometimes walks into a doctor's office to see one of her paintings hanging on the wall.) For "He Said, She Said," Baughman experimented with relief and freestanding sculptures. She glued objects to forms and employed mannequins she bought on clearance at an art store. "(I) just kind of went with it," she said. One major difference between Baughman's past works and her newer ones is that those in the exhibit are brimming with meaning. Many of those meanings deal with women's image and images of women, she said, "and just the struggle between whether you're going to stay with the woman's images or whether you're going to conform to the male images." One piece hints at the Creation story as told in the book of Genesis. "I didn't start out with it being that way; it kind of evolved and just came out that way," she said. It's basically a whole new world for Baughman, who heard professors talk constantly about meaning in art while earning her master's degree in art education at The Ohio State University. "And during the whole time, I kept thinking, there is no meaning in my art." In the past, "I always felt like I was trying to fit into a mold," she said. But after branching off into this new type of artwork, "I can't wait to do more." Daniels is certainly against trying to fit into any mold. He noted one "misconception" he said he'd "like to blow right out of the water." He said many art college professors tell students there's no such thing as black. "I got news for you, there is," he said. "All artists have no fear about using white, but they fear using black, and it's senseless." "Just because a thousand art professors and even successful artists, for that matter ... would say to me, 'you can't use black,' guess what? I'm going to use black because it doesn't matter to me what think think." His message to others: "Stop thinking you need to fit in." Daniels, who lives in north Columbus but has a fondness for Westerville -- where he does his shopping and banking -- views color as the "candy" of a painting. "The way I look at it is, nature had its chance. Now it's my turn," he said. "When I look outside or whatever I'm doing, painting a face or what have you, I'm purely breaking each color down into a value of black and white, and then I take a color ... that closely relates to that value and I try to use it full strength, meaning straight out of the tube. "I can't always do that; that's the hard part." "My whole thing is to have fun with color ... but make it tasty for the eye," he said.