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mo ᜋᜓ

@tabobathwater

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> @pigeons.work / @_bastos.lab

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2025 dump:
selected selfieeesss, bball drafts, mini zine made with my kasamas :3, guest chatbook messages, lo-res memory, self portrait screenshot from lola maria gameplay

***glanceback extension by @mayaontheinternet by @tabobathwater

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9 months ago

Kahidlaw: Filipino Love Songs, cassette mixtape

*𝙆𝙖𝙝𝙞𝙙𝙡𝙖𝙬 𝘪𝘴 𝘢 𝘝𝘪𝘴𝘢𝘺𝘢𝘯 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘥𝘦𝘴𝘤𝘳𝘪𝘣𝘦𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘧𝘦𝘦𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘰𝘧 𝘥𝘦𝘦𝘱 𝘭𝘰𝘯𝘨𝘪𝘯𝘨, 𝘺𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘯𝘪𝘯𝘨, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘮𝘪𝘴𝘴𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘰𝘧 𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘰𝘳 𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨.

I started this personal playlist over a year ago because I ached to remember my home away from home. It has since evolved into a beautiful love letter to the Philippines: its people, culture, and sweet sweet love songs.

To my grandparents Plenio and Marylou Buenacosa, who we called Tatay (Father) and Nanay (Mother) 💌

***
#albumcover #mixtape #albumartwrk #typography by @tabobathwater

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2 years ago

The Flavors of Negros
18x24 Poster
design and words by Mo Jardinico @moja.files

~~~

To fully experience Filipino cuisine, it cannot simply be eaten; you must engage with its memory. What lingers are the flavors of home.

My interpretation of Walay Tugpahay (“no slowing down”) draws inspiration from menus in Filipino restaurants across both the US and the Philippines. I’ve always admired their orderly chaos, a kind of playful rhythm that rejects minimalism, whether through straying from the grid, cheeky typography choices, or photos captured on a simple smartphone. I wanted to honor these principles of Filipino maximalism—an antithesis of Western design. Outer glows, harsh drop shadows, stroke-outlined text, and even Photoshop’s pre-installed shapes felt distinctly *Filipino*. So too did default fonts like Impact, Times New Roman, and Arial, warped into random shapes and half arches. The everyday Filipino type embraces this resourcefulness, a makeshift quality like the cluttered menus found at a family-owned all-you-can-eat buffet. These designs are full of character, texture, and rich with our distinctive visual language.

While dishes like adobo, sinigang, lechon kawali, and kare-kare tend to receive attention for their palatability outside the Philippines, our food is no monolith. Like our people, it is expansive and diverse across the archipelago. For this project, I turned to the regional dishes of my province, Negros Occidental, which felt most fitting to highlight. The most notable being sweet desserts like Piaya, muscovado-filled unleavened flat bread, or Negrense staple chicken inasal. These foods are not novelties to be exoticized; they are the fabric of my ancestors and ancestors before them. In the words of Doreen G. Fernandez, “Negros food comes from its past, and is part of the pride with which Negrenses build their future. It is part of the culture. Matamis, manamit gid ang amon kultura! (Sweet, truly delicious is our culture!)” by @tabobathwater

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a year ago

we’re having our first meeting! it will be in-person/virtual so open to folks outside of LA. sign up link can be found in our bio ~ more location details/info will be sent via email.

→ hope to see you there :) by @tabobathwater

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a year ago

FREE 8.5x11 Prints! distribute and share widely — bring to the next mobilization, make a poster out of it, cover the streets of your city. strongly encourage you to print on bright colored paper too <3

Gentle reminder: If you can I urge you to please attend an action, join an organization, help out in ways that you have capacity for. Whether it’s sharing resources online, remote help w/ protesters, handing out supplies/kits, channeling your rage by making something with others, call/email your representatives, delivering groceries, mutual aid through jail bail funds or direct monetary support to affected families, etc. DO SOMETHING! As a child of immigrants and an immigrant myself i ask you to remember that the people’s struggle is OUR collective struggle. And we fight to protect each other at all costs.

Stay safe folx & f***🧊

🔗download link in bio / on my website too for easier desktop access!

mojardinico.com by @tabobathwater

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a year ago

“The Guerilla is Like a Poet” Poster 11x17

typeset with LL Karatula, Alte Haas Grotesk

***
I keep returning to the words of Jose Maria “Joma” Sison, a revolutionary leader who fought tirelessly for the sovereignty and liberation of the Pilipino people.

Victory to all Freedom fighters for our struggles are interconnected and intertwined. US Out of the Philippines! From Turtle Island to the Congo, Sudan, and Palestine. US Out of EVERYWHERE!

#usoutofthephilippines #usoutofeverywhere #junkEDCA by @tabobathwater

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a year ago

Káon Ka Na! (2024)

Revisiting this piece written last spring with the Reading into the Past/Writing into the Future class @sfpc.study taught by @ashleyjanelewis @moss.portals and @keniaiscreating

[I was too shy to share my writing then (⸝⸝╸-╺⸝⸝) ]

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What would it feel like to be embedded in a memory, not of your own but of your kin?

A depiction of the tenderness found in preparing and gathering at the table for a shared meal with your loved ones. I wrote this with the intention of reimagining the ritual of rice as a portal into kinship and rememory.

“The experience of food is ephemeral. What one puts into the mouth is the end result of a process that starts with the sea, the soil, and animal life… In the act of eating, we ingest the environment, but we do not stop at that, for we Filipinos make eating the occasion for ritual — and ritual the occasion for eating.”

—words of Eddy Alegre, Doreen G Fernandez, Tikim.

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Image source: Jay Carlon on Are.na
Altered pixel video made with touchdesigner by @tabobathwater

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2 years ago

last bit of ink doodles for the year :-p

hands, lots of fish, people, fortune cookie fortunes, random thoughts, and more cats by @tabobathwater

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2 years ago

more sketchbook scans + notes <3 by @tabobathwater

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2 years ago

cats & headphones!

been doodling a lot this year :-) sharing more soon just need to scan em by @tabobathwater

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2 years ago

nahidlaw ako sa imo taken in Philippines by @tabobathwater

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2 years ago

film from my family home in the province, signage from my mom’s old dentistry practice, and my aunt being goofy taken in Victorias City, Negros Occidental, Philippines by @tabobathwater

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2 years ago