The Pathfinder: Raffy Tesoro on His Mother, Designer and Textile Artist Patis Tesoro

Textile conservationist and cultural advocate Raffy Tesoro writes on the value of a true artist today and the creative mind of his mother, Patis Tesoro, whose designs translate the void to bold strokes of color, beadwork, and silhouettes.

Why do we value artists so? Is it because they provide an escape from the mundane? Or that they open windows into other worlds? Statements true and more, but not the meat of the matter. We regard them most highly for their ability to preserve and protect, but also to discern and explore. Artists are the guardians and navigators of a civilization’s culture. Through practice and curation, the artist conveys a culture’s message to be heard by others, and most importantly, to imprint a shared identity within oneself. They provide the insight that purviews the id and ego of a community, a tribe, a region, and a civilization.

With this, we realize that a true artist is a rarity in any community. Many aspire, as is their right to do so, but few succeed in reaching the pinnacle of their craft and mastery of their art. A true artist is fearless in the face of fear. They forever peer into the void of the unknown and unexplored. Walking forth into the fog to discover, they return triumphant or never at all. To become an artist is to sail the uncharted ways of prophecy, tease out the knowledge, and distill it for the rest to view and understand. But to know the future, one must also know the past and understand the present. One must venture into what was lost to the sands of time, rediscover forgotten or dying comprehensions, and translate these rediscoveries into an understanding of the present. Tradition is both a fossil of a culture’s past and an evolving organism; both alive and dead within us all. It is a cadenced song and a snapshot at the same time. The artist as a shaman dances through the realm of the living and the dead to bring a reconciliation and harmony of both.

I parlay this with reason. To understand the mind of a master artist who incidentally is my mother, Patis Tesoro. Growing up, we were exposed to endless travel and wonder at a young age. We became accustomed to luxury and want. Glory and anonymity were two faces of a coin often flipped. We dined with kings one day, paupers the next. It brought a unique and broad perspective on life and on art. We were taught the value of quality and hard work. We learned to understand the importance of balance. How the glorious and the mundane should be fused expertly to create the most striking works of art.

All this ingrained the most important lesson for an artist: to explore. Mom is a cultural explorer. Through research and inference she understood the patterns of the past, especially with our own culture in the Philippines. She collected hundreds of textile and clothing artifacts from Philippine history. With this, she studied the cut and mold of past artisans to return our traditional clothing patterns to us. She pored over yards and yards of antique fabrics to peer into the minds of their makers and reconstruct the philosophy of our traditional design. Then she ventures into the present, looking at modern cuts, today’s textiles, and the designs of other cultures to create a new, unique vision of Filipino culture. It is a tightrope that she has walked for over half a century. There were some wobbles, very few slips, but her body of work is testament to the fine line that she has learned to toe.

But to explore is only the first act. The next is to collate and coalesce the myriad motes of information and distill them into a cohesive idea. A design. My mother dwells in this realm of mortality and immortality, a denizen of chaos and order. Her mind sees color, shape, and size in a way that you and I do not. In a way that most do not. Where we see a leaf, she envisions a pattern; a butterfly is a stitch, a bird… a button. She traverses the maelstrom of creativity to return with structure and ideas. Silhouettes and designs are the product of her translations from the void.

And in this, fearlessness comes into play. If you stare into the abyss long enough, it stares back at you. My mother glares at it unflinchingly. There is a price to pay, and the coin is one’s sanity. Most do not have enough currency, but armed with an iron will, my mother collects her winnings regularly. Having worked with her for decades, I am privy to her process. Although I know her hand goes where the pen wants, it is guided by an innate intuition of beauty that few possess and is guarded by meticulous research and hard experience. This is reflected in her work, where bold strokes of color are mixed with strong lines, enhanced by embroidery and beadwork, or stark monochromes. Slashes of pure folly are enshrined in geometrics that provide rhyme to reason. It is wild and tumultuous, yet at the same time, it is stunning, structured, and powerful. Throughout, her feminine energy is prevalent. It is one of the most attractive facets of her art.

There is a reason why ships and storms of yore were named after women. As forces of nature, hurricanes batter and bruise. Waylaying the unprepared and turning back the meek. But at the end of it all, it brings clear skies and calm waters. At the same time, a ship is a symbol of traversal with the hope of passage to safe harbor. To me, this symbolizes my mother most of all. A powerful, chaotic force that cannot be tamed and yet provides expert navigation through the stormy seas of creation. A conquistador of the past, present, and future who blazes a path for the rest of us to follow. But a path to what, you ask? She is one of those few who lay the road. A road that we tread on our own journey of discovery, on who we are as Filipinos. She is one of those few who chart the stars to our identity as a nation. She helps define us as a people. In textile and in clothing, she is custode. Our custodian.

With this, I ask all who read to reflect on the idea that for the good of our civilization, we need to understand the importance of our culture bearers. My mother is but one of a dwindling brigade of artisans, craftsmen, scientists, researchers, educators and producers who are passionate to guard and promote our culture. That for us to sustain our identity we have to support our culture bearers or become one, ourselves. To effect change for the greater good, we must love ourselves and each other. To do that, we must understand ourselves and each other. This is the true importance of knowing our culture. While many of us may not have the merits to become the next pathfinders, we can support the cause by providing the resources for them. 

Support their work. Wear it with pride. Eat it with gusto. Listen with intent. Consume within reason and with understanding.

Most importantly, we must learn to love everything that makes us Filipino. Warts and all.

Photographs by BIMPOMAN. Fashion Editor DAVID MILAN. Deputy Editor: Pam Quiñones. Media Channels Editor: Anz Hizon. Producer: Bianca Zaragoza. Makeup: Zidjian Paul Floro. Hair: Gab Villegas. Model: Merille Madaus-Bruck. Nails: Extraordinail. Photo Assistants: E.S.L. Chen, Ruzzian Escaros, Sam Stax. Designer profile by Chelsea Sarabia. Special thanks to Nina Tesoro-Poblador.