THE MOUNT EDEN POEMS
RONALD PHILIP TANAKA
Tanaka was born in the Poston War Relocation Center, Arizona in 1944.
He is the author of The Shino Suite, Shidó, the Way of Poetry and Systems Models for Literary Macro-Theory.
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He also created the exhibition and website, Scenes from a Country Tea Room.
He attended Pomona College and took his Ph.D. in British Literature from the University of California, Berkeley. Tanaka is currently Emeritus Professor of English at Sacramento State University.
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LUIS “THE FOOT” GONZALEZ
Sacramento area painter, poet and silk screen artist, Gonzlez is one of the original officers of the Royal Chicano Air Force. He served two tours of duty with Generals José Montoya and Estéban Villa.
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He designed and constructed the original archival mounts for The Mount Eden Poems exhibitions.
Gonzalez graduated from Sacramento State University and now works for the US Postal Service in Sacramento. “The Foot” continues to exhibit his innovative poetry and artwork throughout the United States.
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DAVID KIMBALL
Kimball specializes in the making of fine art papers. His studio is at Magnolia Editions, Oakland. David holds an MA in Comparative Literature from UCLA and is an avid collector of fine and interesting wines.
MELANIE A. SLOOTWEG
Slootweg worked as model and text editor for The Mount Eden Poems from their inception in 1987. She holds an MA in American literature from Sacramento State University where she was on the women’s tennis team.
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Slootweg was originally trained as a pianist. During the five years it took to complete the photographs, she was on the staff at Sacramento Country Day School.
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YOI TANAKA
When she was six, Yoi Tanaka served as model and wine label artist for the original Mount Eden Poems exhibitions.
Eleven years later, Mount Eden Vineyards commissioned her to do the series of pastels that now accompany the photographs.
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Yoi is currently a history student at the University of California, San Diego. She has also provided photographs and illustrations for The Shino Suite and Shidó web sites.
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MOUNTAIN WINES
RONALD PHILIP TANAKA
Ronald Phillip Tanaka is a third generation Japanese-American whose cultural heritage is reflected in his artistic expression. Tanaka has an uncanny way of blending the spirit of East and West using the intellectual traditions of both cultures in the thematic content of his work.
Born in a relocation center of the Japanese during World War II, his father was an American-born Buddhist and his mother was an American-born Christian. As he says, “we called ourselves Sansei, the first generation essentially monolingual Japanese, those raised on blue jeans, Mustangs and rock’n roll”.
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His current poetic and photographic work explores the mental landscape of the Pacific Rim culture of the next century. Tanka uses an exciting new genre, research-based public service exhibition of photography and poetry which looks forward to the year 2000 as well as incorporating traditions of the past.
Tanka attended Pomona College and the University of California, Berkeley, taking an interdisciplinary doctorate in the 17th c. British literature, formal linguistics and the philosophy of language. In addition, he has taught at the University of British Columbia. He was a Professor of English at California State University, Sacramento.
Tanka is well-versed in two important elements of his Japanese heritage, the tea ceremony, and Kendo (Japanese fencing). Many of his visual and spiritual aesthetics are borrowed from these two disciplines. His is the single parent to two daughters, Shinobu and Yoi.
Ron passed away in February 2007.
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DAVID KIMBALL
David Kimball of Magnolia Editions, Oakland has made custom papers for the Tanaka exhibitions since 1987. The text paper of Mountain Wines is named Sophie’s Sky and represents the earth, sky, and vines of Mount Eden Vineyards. It was specifically designed to be used with the Xerox 5090 photocopy machine, this combining the ancient craft of papermaking with public access technology.
KELSEY GRAY
Kelsey Gray is a junior at Mills College, where she is a pre-med major and is pursuing a double major in anthropology/sociology and biology. While at Mills, she has held positions in student government and is currently a teaching assistant in biology. She has played number on the Mills College tennis team for the past two years and has received the Mills Scholar /Athlete of the year of those years.
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Ms. Gray attended high school at Crossroads School for the Arts and Sciences in Santa Monica, California, where she graduated with honors and became a member of the Cum Laude Society. Ms. Gray is the niece of American painter, Cleve Gray, and has grown up with an extensive collection his works. She believes this exposure to contemporary art, as well as an appreciation for fine wines, has helped her to relate to the Mountain Wines project in a very personal way.
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