July is in the heart of summer in Cook County. From the thick green forests to early-morning birdsong to the hum of insects, every inch of the world seems to be teeming with life. Britt Malec is a local artist whose work celebrates this rich, living world around us, from the endless Lake Superior horizon to the smallest lines in leaves and lichens. Her work reflects the details of the lives that surround us on a daily basis: details that all of us can notice if we learn to be present for them.
Malec’s connection to the natural world stretches back to her childhood. Growing up in an intergenerational household, she spent a lot of time in the garden and camping with her grandparents. As time went on, she was drawn to herbal medicine and began to explore the relationship between people and plants throughout history, finding a greater level of respect and awe for the land and developing a kinship with plants that would continue to weave through her life.
This kinship became especially important during a challenging season after Malec moved to Cook County, Minn., in 2019. Five months pregnant at the time, Malec knew that moving would be a big transition, especially as she was leaving a flower business, a band, and a close community behind. What she didn’t know was that her daughter would be born at the start of a global pandemic, when the world was thrust into isolation. As a new parent in a new place, the move became an especially difficult time. To combat isolation and anxiety, she got to know the woods and lakes around her, writing and illustrating an essay called Lessons From Lichens.
“I wrote it for myself because I needed to, but I’ve been amazed and humbled by how many people have connected with it. That project marked a return to taking my creative work more seriously,” Malec said.
Although she had always made art, the move to Grand Marais marked Malec’s return to watercolor painting. She needed a creative practice she could do while parenting small children, and watercolor was a quick medium that she could put down and pick up between the many parenting tasks that shaped her days. As she painted the details of the plants, people, and animals, her painting became not just a creative outlet, but a practice in slowing down and being fully present with those around her.
“Reading Robin Wall Kimmerer’s Braiding Sweetgrass has helped me articulate the beauty and healing in honoring our connection to the land as well as the longing for belonging that we all share,” Malec said. “When I draw, paint, or sing about a plant, a river, or a stone, I’m sending a tiny love letter that says ‘I see you. I’m learning from you. Thank you.’”
Another element of Malec’s creative work is pająki, the Polish craft of making mobiles from straw, paper, and colorful pom-poms. The word pająki literally means “spiders” in Polish; like a spider weaving a delicate web, making a pająk requires careful work. According to Polish folklore, having one of these mobiles in a special corner of the home brings luck and protection. For Malec, it’s a craft that she began as a way to connect to the ancestry on her dad’s side.
“My dad died in 2012, and making pająki began as a way to positively connect to a broken lineage, but I found a deep satisfaction in the repetition and attention that this craft demands,” she said. “I like that it’s a craft that is decorative and isn’t utilitarian in the strictest sense.”
In addition to her artwork, Malec also leads a weekly song circle at the Cook County Community Center on Tuesday nights: an opportunity for everyone who wants to sing to come together to build connection and enjoy the feeling of singing together. Looking ahead, she hopes to return to some personal projects like making wycinanki (Polish paper cut collages), writing more songs to sing at the song circles, and finishing another illustrated essay. Malec’s work can be found at her website, brittmalec.com, with her book available at Drury Lane Books and select artwork available at The Big Lake in Grand Marais.
“Nothing I do would be possible without the artists and mentors who came before me, the community that surrounds me, or my family that supports me,” Malec said. “I live with my very supportive husband, great kids, and even my childhood best friend. How lucky! Must be all the pająki.”
