Today we’d like to introduce you to Amanda “Semente” Caroline De Oliveira Pereira.
Hi Amanda “Semente” Caroline, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
I was born in São Paulo, Brazil in 1993 and my journey as an artist started not long after that. As a toddler, I was always looking for pen and paper to draw on and as a kid, I would draw wherever I had the opportunity. In 1999, my immediate family and I immigrated to Massachusetts and art was something I continued to turn to while life had its ups and downs. Because my parents came to the US for opportunities at education and a more comfortable life, school was a huge priority in our household. I received a Martin Luther King Jr. Scholarship to Brandeis University where I double majored in International and Global Studies and African and African-American Studies with minors in Latin American Studies and Women and Gender Studies. As graduation neared, I did not yet know how who I am and the skills I had could contribute to the world, but I knew I wanted to keep learning in order to figure it out. I was admitted to the University of Texas at Austin for a Masters and PhD in African and African Diaspora Studies and I began in 2015.
In 2017, I completed my Master and am currently writing my dissertation on the role of art as a tool for healing, community building, and liberation and am working to graduate May of 2022. Here in Austin, I have been able to flourish as an artist participating in plays, performances, capoeira, dance, live paintings, art exhibitions, teaching workshops, and becoming a trauma-informed-community-focused yoga teacher through the Amala Foundation and Sanctuary Yoga. I am part of a visual art collective called We Here Collective and a performing arts collective called Ashé Arts Collective. I have worked as a collective member at Treasure City Thrift and currently work as a sculpture teacher for Totally Cool, Totally Art through the City of Austin Parks and Recreation. I have also been the University Engagement Fellow at the Blanton Museum of Art for the 2021-2022 academic year and have had the opportunity to teach classes with the art in the museum which has been truly amazing!
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Being a Black, queer, immigrant girl and woman definitely has had its challenges. Growing up in a biracial home, it was really clear to me the ways that racism, sexism, colorism, neocolonialism, colonization, and patriarchy impacted me and my family, especially when I went to college and started applying theory to everyday experiences. Even though we immigrated in 1999, I did not obtain US citizenship until 2020! I took my oath socially distanced and with a mask on and I was in disbelief at how far I have come but also how long it took. Now, I am learning more about how trauma gets housed in the body and how to remind myself not to function in the type of survival mode that has been required of my family and I to get to where we are. Systemic and global white supremacy, anti-Blackness, sexism, homophobia, capitalism, borders, etc. have all been challenges that I have and continue to overcome. I am really grateful to my ancestors, to the divinities I pray to, and to my parents for walking down roads that have not always been smooth so I can be here. I’d like to apply what I have learned to help make the road of life smoother for others.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I am a multidisciplinary artist working in the areas of visual, performance, movement, and literary arts. I create paintings, sculptures, poetry, plays, performances and practice capoeira, dance and yoga. My visual art practice has been consistent since childhood as I was always drawing and painting in my free time. I took one visual art class in undergrad and began actively selling and showing my work around 2016. I specialize in jazz-aesthetic performance and community theater and have done work with Salvage Vanguard Theater, the Vortex, Florinda Bryant, ACC Drama Department, The Carver Museum, The Greensnake Arthouse among others. I am interested in also branching out to television and film in the future. I began to take movement arts seriously when I started my yoga practice at around 14 years old. After sustaining this practice through undergrad, I completed my yoga teacher certification in 2019, my year off from graduate school. I have also been a runner for over 15 years. I have been training capoeira since 2013 and received my capoeira name, Semente (pronounced: Seh-Mein-tchi) meaning “seed” in Portuguese around 2017. I am very proud of my capoeira practice as it connects me to my African and Afro-Brazilian roots and the culture, spirituality, and strength they preserved and sustained. I am also proud of my written work and the paintings I have created and will be creating soon. I often connect Black feminist theory to my visual artwork which allows me to connect what I writing about to what I paint about. I also specialize in murals, portraits, and workshops that help utilize art as a tool for self-actualization, community building, healing, and processing more liberated futures for marginalized communities.
Do you have any advice for those looking to network or find a mentor?
My biggest advice for finding a mentor is show up, reach out, speak up. I have found that the most divinely aligned connections happen when I follow what I am most interested in. Moving to Austin alone, I really struggled in the first two years. Then I decided to get out there and show up to events, auditions, talks, workshops, etc. where I thought there may be interesting people. From there, I have made more life-changing connections, mentorship, and collaborations than I could have ever asked for. If you are interested in being mentored by me, reach out. If you are interested in mentoring me, please also reach out. My motto is to always be a student and teacher ready to learn and teach.
Pricing:
- Art-Based Workshops: $100/hour
- Private Yoga Lessons: $100/hour
- Art Commissions: $300+
- Portuguese Lessons $75/hour
- Creative Direction: $50/hour
Contact Info:
- Email: artbysemente@gmail.com
- Website: https://linktr.ee/artbysemente
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/artbysemente_performance/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/artbysementevisual
- Twitter: twitter.com/artbysemente
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QrxCHa6qW4A&feature=youtu.be
- Other: https://www.instagram.com/artbysemente_visual/
Image Credits
Black Studies at UT, Justin Humphrey, Erica Nix, Oludare Joseph (Royal Moments Media), Siobhán McCusker, Semente
