Decorative painter Theresa Hoaglund combines her love of flowers and her passion for repurposing found objects in a collection of handpainted zinc canning jar lids for Mantorville Farms.

You’ll see a lot of roses and sunflowers, Theresa’s favorite flowers, on these unusual pieces of functional artwork. They top glass canning jars and often are used for storage containers on kitchen counters or given as one-of-a-kind gifts. They are not suitable for jams or jellies, since they do not seal like today’s modern canning lids and, once painted with acrylic paints, can’t be put in the dishwasher or be subject to really hot water.

Theresa has been an artist for 30 years. The mother of six children, she started by taking a ceramic class. She liked it so much that her husband Lyle bought her a kiln. That led to teaching ceramic classes; opening a shop called Riverside Gifts, which is now named Cottage Treasures and located in a restored two-story Victorian house in Mantorville; and forming the Mantorville Art Guild with a group of other artists.

She taught herself decorative painting through instructional books and videos. “Perfecting my decorative painting took a lot of practice, and I created a lot things I didn’t like,” Theresa says. “But eventually it grew to be things I did like.”

But that’s the way it is with all artists. Theresa recalls traveling to the Twin Cities to get her certification as a ceramics teacher. “We would call our pieces back then highway art because we threw them out the window on the way home. I’m joking, of course, but yes, in the beginning I threw a lot away.”

Today she collects other people’s discards at garage sales and flea markets and turns them into art. “I love to paint on found objects,” the Mantorville artist says. “I like to rescue things. That’s how I got started painting lids; I found a box of my grandmother’s old canning lids.” She also paints Santas and snowmen (“People seem to love snowmen”) on a variety of objects: old shovels, sleds, ironing boards, little boxes, even clothing.

Theresa and Lyle have been businesspeople in Mantorville for 20 years. Theresa is excited that the nonprofit Mantorville Art Guild, formed only four years ago, has grown to 30 artists working in all capacities. It says something about the artistic nature of the area, and, Theresa says, “The community is enjoying it as much as we are.” The guild offers art classes to adults and children, including a summer art camp for kids.

Between her painting; helping Lyle run Cottage Treasures; tending to gardens at her home, at the business, and the guild; and serving on the guild board, Theresa would seem to have her hands full. But no, she’s now studying watercolor as well.