Roey Victoria Heiftez, Anxiety, My Love!, 2018. Graphite, charcoal, and ink on paper. Courtesy of the artist and Israeli Art in Los Angeles. © 2019 Roey Victoria Heiftez

Roey Victoria Heiftez’s larger-than-life drawings are obsessively detailed and passionate portraits. Through her artwork, Heiftez contends with her fears and anxieties in pursuit of self-discovery and acceptance. 

The woman’s face in this portrait is lined with wrinkles and pocked with age marks. In drawing portraits of older women, Heiftez is able to confront her own feelings about aging as a transwoman.

“I’m stressed by the fact that I’m undergoing an accelerated maturation process. I actually never had my youth as a girl. I started my femininity at the age of 38.”
— Roey Victoria Heiftez