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Tom Mersmann doesn't have to drive far to feel like he's out in the middle of nowhere.

When the Lawrence painter wants to paint secluded nature, he sometimes takes his easel to the Baker Wetlands on the southern edge of Lawrence.

"It's kind of like being outside of the city, because it's in town but you can get a feeling of seclusion pretty quickly out there," Mersmann says. "There's a real variety of plant life - trees and shrubs - and a wide variety of birds and animals and stuff. It's cool. It's an easily accessible place to see all these things."

And, in Mersmann's case, to paint them, too.

The artwork generated by the 365 acres of wetlands will be the focus of an event Saturday. "The Wakarusa Wetlands in Word & Image: Making It Real" will feature talks by a painter, photographer, historian naturalist and writers, all designed to help attendees understand the wetlands and capture them in their art.

The education day is tied to a book released last year. "The Wakarusa Wetlands in Word & Image" is a collection of paintings, photographs, essays and poems inspired by the wetlands.

Both the event and the book were organized by the Committee on Imagination and Place, a division of the Lawrence Arts Center.

Denise Low, the Haskell Indian Nations University English professor who edited the book, says the idea initially came from a 2003 visit by author and naturalist Terry Tempest Williams.

Low describes the book as "not a political issue so much as a mapping of that site." The wetlands have been key in the decades-long debate over where to route the southern leg of the South Lawrence Trafficway, with the possibility of building the road through the wetlands and creating other wetlands elsewhere.

"It is virtually within the city, and it's a very large tract of land," Low says. "It's enough space for blue herons and egrets, bobcats and minks - really a remarkable variety of free-ranging wildlife to live out their seasons and their lives. It's just an amazing gift the city has. It's not exactly like Central Park in New York City, but it's close."

From an artist's perspective, that variety offers inspiration that can change from day to day.

"The more you're out there, the more you can appreciate what's out there," Mersmann says. "There's a lot of texture, a variety of color. It's a good place for painting, particularly for landscapes. I'm always surprised there aren't more people out there walking around, whether they're there to paint or just walk around."

Rick Mitchell, gallery director at the Lawrence Arts Center, selected the images for the book. They include details of a frog, a snake and a spider, as well as images of flowers, trees and grasses.

"One thing we really talked about quite a bit was most people go by the wetlands - they drive by it and don't really perceive what's inside," Mitchell says. "They may be aware it's there as a piece of land, but they're unaware of what's really there. We wanted to pick some things that showed some of the flora and fauna that is unique to the place. We wanted to show an insider's view."

Like Low, Mitchell says the book wasn't intended to take a stand on the South Lawrence Trafficway issue. He says he just wants people in Lawrence to have all the information they can about the wetlands.

"For me, personally, it's a symbolic location," Mitchell says. "We weren't trying to make a political statement exactly. We wanted to make sure the attributes of the wetlands were recognized."

Organizers are hoping Saturday's event is an extension of that, providing a foundation for both visiting the wetlands and producing art there.

"We just wanted a way to celebrate the book and celebrate the wetlands, and use it as a way to get people out to the wetlands to experience it in a number of different ways," says Lisa Grossman, a Lawrence artist who is helping organize the event. "It feels pretty vast even though you're pretty close to the city. You can find some quiet respite from the noise. It's a square mile teeming with life, with a vitality of its own. There's a lot of artistic inspiration there."

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