In casual conversation with a colleague, poet Gary Snyder once remarked, "Your place is your practice." This statement invites a number of interpretations, but seems especially interesting in relation to art. Artistry, whether it be literary or visual or involved with some other medium, is inherently mixed up with the business of living, and living inescapably occurs in places. The interface, then, between art and place is a natural one, so to speak. (Geophysical nature is obviously a main component in the definition of "place," but so are human constructs such as cities and farms and dialects.) For instance, as writers attempt to address the many dimensions and intricacies of life, they constantly face the issue of environment--whether it be a character's environment or their own. They must consider the question of whether or not/how much a particular place or environment affects consciousness, what kind of distinctive elements define a place as what it is, and how the place in which some aspect of living occurs may reveal something imaginatively and intellectually substantial about human life.

For some writers, place is a predominant interest, and its images and sounds greatly influence their entire artistic consciousness; for others, it is simply one interest among many in the troublesome, fascinating process of living. This issue of Spark takes the opportunity to explore how one local environment, the watershed in which UCDavis is located, has shaped the artistic endeavors of a concentrated community of writers (and a smattering of visual artists, for good measure). For more information on this watershed or on art produced in and about this bioregion (area of living), please go to http://wdsroot.ucdavis.edu/clients/pcbr.