For Brach Tiller, a love letter takes on a different form.

Instead of being a handwritten letter or a card, it’s a series of vibrant oil paintings publicly displayed and dedicated to Tiller’s fiancée, Sam.

“In some regards, the idea for the exhibition could be attributed to her,” wrote Tiller, a Detroit-based artist, in an email interview.

Titled Me and You: Paintings by Brach Tiller, the exhibition provides a glimpse into the everyday experiences, interests, and aspirations that Tiller and Sam share. It also chronicles the meals and activities Tiller prepared and arranged on the day he proposed to Sam.

Located at The Gallery inside Washtenaw Community College’s Morris Lawrence Building, Me and You features 13 oil paintings and runs through September 11. 

Upon first glance, the brightly colored oil paintings instantly pop through The Gallery’s glass exterior and from the walls where they’re displayed inside.

Once visitors step inside The Gallery, they can easily study one piece at a time and follow the narrative that threads Me and You together.

“The paintings in this show spotlight the things we make, eat, and dream of, and the metaphors that grow out of them,” wrote Tiller in his artist statement for the exhibition.

One of the first Me and You pieces visitors see is called Red, a square oil painting that features a hybrid of a strawberry and a golf ball.

It’s the first in a series of six similar paintings in different colors that showcase the hybrid object with a shadow moving behind it.

“Growing wild strawberries was something Sam and I did for fun to occupy ourselves, while also spending a lot of time mini golfing,” wrote Tiller.

“Golf balls and berries have a spherical fractal shape that feel similar to me visually, so I wanted to merge those objects into one idea. At the same time, I had been wanting to create a series of paintings that were identical but were assorted in color.”

The other paintings feature the hybrid strawberry-golf ball in Orange, Yellow, Blue, Violet, and Green.

“One of the best parts about mini golfing is picking out your ball color, and this seemed like the perfect moment to create that series of paintings,” he wrote.

“I personally enjoy the Green one because I am a sucker for emerald/phthalo greens. Sam doesn’t have a favorite because she enjoys them as a set, but her favorite part is the movement of the shadow behind each painting, marking time like a sundial.”

The six paintings are also spread throughout the exhibition and hang in between larger paintings—like Breakfast, Dinner, and The Unreturned.

To learn more, I recently did an email interview with Tiller about the exhibition.

Q: How did your artistic journey start in Toledo?
A: Pursuing a career in the arts began as a slow burn for me. Throughout my youth, my father was always sculpting in the basement, so there was a natural curiosity by proximity. Although my father is a sculptor, what I was most interested in was putting pencil to paper.

My natural hand wasn’t something I considered deeply at the time because I was focused on my athletic aspirations in ice hockey. I had never actually painted a picture until I got to Bowling Green State University, but from that point on, I fell in love with painting and was dead set on becoming an artist.

Q: How did your love of art evolve in college?
A: Going to school for painting was, for me, about my peers and mentors. I learned how to paint technically in school, but I learned the most about art and myself from fellow artists by asking questions and listening. As an artist, I feel that you have to make your own opportunities and the rest will follow. I decided early on in my academic endeavors that I [would] involve myself in all that I could when it pertained to the arts.

At Bowling Green State University, I was the president of the Two-Dimensional Art Association and hosted life-drawing sessions each week through the school on my own accord. Then, at Cranbrook Academy of Art, I made it my mission to be a department assistant for painting so I would have more time with our visiting artists. I found that—over time—opportunities began to present themselves because I was diligently working on my studio practice while also [being involved] in the social aspect of the art world/scene.

Q: What brought you to Detroit?
A: After graduating from Bowling Green State University, I had my own little studio in Toledo and was lucky enough to have my first solo show with a local gallery called River House Arts. That experience gave me the necessary courage to see what I could do in a larger city like Detroit.

I found a shared studio in Southwest Detroit and a day job at Roush Industries. I would wake up at 6 am for work, clock out at 3 pm, and head to my studio to paint until it was time for bed. After about two years of this, I felt something had to change, and graduate school was my answer.

Although I didn’t technically leave Detroit, I was at Cranbrook for two years, and once those two years were over, I moved back down to Southwest Detroit, where I got my own studio that I still have to this day. I don’t know if Detroit itself has inspired me directly, but the people I’m lucky enough to call friends have.

Because Detroit has a larger economic system than Toledo, there are naturally more artists, galleries, and opportunities. Seeing other artists and friends creating work is more inspiring for me than anything else.

Q: How do vibrant color palettes and alternative dimensions and perspectives influence your work?
A: Color … is a personal choice of intuition and taste. I’ve always enjoyed colorful paintings, so I’m inclined to create what I would want to see hanging on the walls. The color choices themselves … create a setting that is otherworldly yet believable. I find it an incredibly fun challenge to reimagine an object so that it’s no longer wholly recognizable, but still carries the weight of its original affectation. Each piece in the exhibition highlights an object that [represents] the select things we feel hold value to us.

Q: Tell me about the overall creative process behind the 13 pieces for Me and You.
A: All the paintings in the show have been made within the last year. The time spent on each piece varies based on size, dry time, and compositional complexity, but this body of work took roughly eight to nine months [to complete].

Each painting starts with a general idea, then I begin working in a 3D rendering program, where I build the composition from the ground up. Once I have built something I like, I usually spend some extra time playing around with the color and textures of the scene before I commit to painting it. I work on a couple of paintings at once, so there is a lot of bouncing around in the early stages as paintings start to inform each other.

Q: The pieces Breakfast and Dinner both feature eye-catching elements that emerge from the canvas. How do they invite viewers to explore each piece?
A: I hope that my approach to composition draws the viewer into the painting so that they spend a little time with it. That time spent can be imagining the spaces I’ve created as a larger world in their head, or simply turning your brain off and enjoying the textures and luscious colors.

Q: How does The Unreturned fit within the exhibition’s overall theme?
A: Sam and I both spent our time going to the gym together when we first met. Our biggest gripe—we would laugh at each other about it every time we left the gym—was how it felt impossible to find matching dumbbells because no one ever returned them to their original place. I feel in the painting the vast open space with falling dumbbells that have no partner are lost out there on their own, hoping to one day be returned.

Q: What other pieces in the exhibition would you like to highlight?
A: I really enjoy the mirrored paintings, Louise and Maxine. Sam is very good at making sourdough bread, and she does it pretty regularly. Both of those paintings are an imagination of glass loaves in an oven, which is an homage to Sam’s desire to have twin daughters. The paintings are a manifestation of sorts.

Q: Collectively, what do you want people to take away from the exhibition?
A: I simply hope viewers enjoy looking at the paintings. They’re very personal, so I don’t expect everyone to feel the way I do, but if they walk away with a sense of love and hope, then I would be happy.

Q: What plans do you have after the exhibition?
A: No immediate plans for after the exhibition yet, which is nice. I’m looking forward to working at a slower pace and spending more time with the paintings for the next body of work I have brewing.

Q: Do you envision doing another exhibition that captures your life with Sam once you’re married?
A: We both have birthdays on the 20th of our respective months, so we are going to get officially married on October 20 to keep it simple for us. My work is generally inspired by my lived experience, which means our life will always find its way into my paintings. So no concrete plans for that yet, but I’m sure there will be a show about our first home purchase at some point.

Lori Stratton is a library technician, writer for Pulp, and writer and editor of strattonsetlist.com.

"Me and You: Paintings by Brach Tiller" runs through September 11 at The Gallery at Washtenaw Community College. The Gallery is located inside WCC's Morris Lawrence Building, 4800 East Huron River Drive, Ann Arbor. The exhibition is free and available to view Monday through Thursday from 8 am to 8 pm, Friday from 8 am to 5 pm, and Saturday from 8 am to noon. For details, visit WCC's website.