Simone Rotman is an Oakland-based artist, photographer, writer, performer, and community builder.

Chat GPT, write my bio. Tell me who I am. Fix all my imperfections. Make me whole and legible and please wedge some commas into my lungs so I can breathe a little easier. No.

I make art. Art makes me. I make spoken word, songs, drawings, paintings, and collaborative experiences (AKA paint WITH me, sing WITH me, sit in silence with me in a tent for two hours and look me right in the eyes I promise it will only be the most awkward experience of your life but maybe we’ll glimpse into each others souls for at least a millisecond). I ride the stream of consciousness til it becomes a rumpus river.

I make art that is vulnerable. Heart on the line, fart on the line, color outside the lines. I believe that human experience is SO much more than just the parts that are socially acceptable to talk about.

I challenge myself to live in the uncomfortable, long silences that can’t be filled, songs without choruses, raps that don’t rhyme, and unknown zones that can only be touched with the persistence of breath. I sing about moments of shame, heartache, bodily experience. My hope is that in practicing opening up my heart, my vocal cords, and my box of chalk pastels, I can invite others to open themselves and we can create meaningful connections.

Whether you relate to me as a woman, a jew, a fellow overthinker, or fellow living breathing being…I want to connect.

Simone, this is too long for the average 21st century attention span. Maybe you should make it in TikTok format. No it’s okay, the real homies will stick with it.

Maybe tomorrow I’ll edit it, maybe not.

Check out my work!