Susan Morris, a member of the Sahuarita Art Guild, is reflected in one of her paintings (titled: "Forgotten Time") on display at the Sahuarita Town Hall. Morris is one of the Sahuarita Art Guild artists who have their works displayed on the walls of the Town Hall.

james s. wood / arizona daily star

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As the town of Sahuarita grows and further establishes its Southern Arizona identity, art has entered into the picture.

A small legion of local artists is putting colors to a public canvas.

There are paintings of desert landscapes. Imaginary images. Pastels. Watercolors. Acrylic.

And they are on view at Sahuarita's Town Hall.

The institutional walls are adorned with depictions of whatever comes to the minds of Sahuarita Art Guild members. Since late November, works by the guild's members have hung on the walls for the public to see and purchase.

The idea grew out of mutual interests with the guild and town officials.

"We knew we wanted art in the town center," said Sue Payne, the town's Neighborhood Outreach Coordinator.

Payne got in touch with Sherry Darrah, a former San Diegan and president of the fledgling art guild, which was looking for a place to exhibit.

The two hatched the idea of displaying guild members' artwork.

Jim Powers is a landscape photographer.

Gregg Vinson sells organic beef — beef from cows he says have never received a single shot or medication, so it's wholly natural.

Carl Hill peddles handmade fountain pens, a passion he finds time for outside his career at Raytheon Missile Systems.

Each is a vendor at the Rincon Valley Farmers and Artisans Market, 12500 E. Old Spanish Trail. They agree that what they like so much about selling in the old barn that houses them is the friendly atmosphere.

"It's a great little market," said Hill. "It's great networking, and all of the vendors really look out for each other, besides being great people."

The Rincon Valley market is operated by the non-profit Rincon Institute, and Hill said he can set up shop at a table outside the stalls in the barn for about 20 bucks. Not bad for some good business real estate.

The market offers a variety of homemade goods and homegrown foods. It is open Saturdays from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. in the winter months. It operates 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. in the summer.

Fourteen junior rangers participated in a Junior Ranger Wilderness Camp last month for children ages 10-13 in Saguaro National Park West.

Camp activities included pitching tents and cooking with a backpack stove, desert-tortoise tracking, compass- and map-reading, and a night hike.

Junior rangers only simulated camping Dec. 29-31 and never actually spent a night in the park.

"This is an opportunity for kids to be in nature," Park Ranger Chip Littlefield said. "We didn't structure it too much."

Aodhan Lyons, 11, didn't really need an introduction to the desert. He's participated in the camp before and designated himself camp cook and camp entertainer.

When he wasn't talking about cheese — he's a cheese aficionado of sorts — the Basis Tucson sixth-grader was searching for animal bones.

He's also well-informed about what people must do to protect and preserve the desert.

" 'Take nothing but pictures. Leave nothing but footprints,' " he would quote. " 'Kill nothing but time.' "

Fellow junior ranger Joseph Turner, 10, was more interested in animal scat, or droppings, and finding edible desert plants.

Animal scat can tell you what animals are in the park, volunteer Ranger Michael Jondall said.

Here's another interesting tidbit: Fruit found on a barrel cactus can be removed and eaten, Joseph said.

"It doesn't really taste like anything," Joseph said after taking a bite of the fruit. "The fruit itself is really gross."

A new wall along a stretch of North La Cañada Road served as a canvas for local artist Matthew Moutafis.

For him, the wall wasn't just about keeping errant golf balls inside the Hilton Tucson El Conquistador Golf & Tennis Resort. It was about creating a wall that residents wouldn't mind having in their neighborhood.

"People who live here have to look at it every day," he said of the 8-foot-high, 1,200-foot-long wall between West Naranja and West Tangerine roads.

The wall, made of masonry slump block, is divided into three segments and encrusted with 176 steel yuccas, saguaros, prickly pear cacti and other art pieces reflective of the Southwest.

"The impressions of the desert shapes are really neat, and I like the colors. There is a lot of green and some purple that really stands out," said Jan Truitt, who lives across the street in the Copper Creek subdivision.

The wall is part of a $5.1 million project to widen a mile-long portion of La Cañada. The road project, which forced reconstruction of the fourth hole at the golf course, also includes landscaping and a multi- use path parallel to the wall.

Memories flowed as freely as the tea, champagne and laughs Saturday in the Cascade Lounge at Loews Ventana Canyon Resort, 7000 N. Resort Drive, as 12 people gathered for Holiday Tea.

The four-course tea service, featuring creations by chef Rohan Wirasinha, was a first for 13-year-old Bonnie Diamond, who attended the tea with her mother, sisters and other relatives and close family friends, all females.

"We should do this a lot more," she quipped as the friends and family swapped stories and discussed movies, books, boyfriends and life.

The group came to tea to celebrate Diane Hicks' Christmas birthday, the new year and old times, something a few of those at the table started years ago in high school, when they brought their mothers. Now, with their daughters in tow, the tradition continues.