Carla Hefley
Carla (Blissit) Hefley lived her entire young life in Broken Arrow, graduating from Broken Arrow High School in 1974. She worked in her father’s machine shop until marriage in 1976. This took her to Tulsa, where she and her husband Robert, raised two accomplished daughters, and she helped him build a very successful electrical contracting company. In 2006, major shifts in her world, deaths, empty nest syndrome, and turning 50 finally slowed her down and brought her to some dark days.
She was first introduced to art in junior high, carrying around a drawing pad everywhere she went. In 2009, art and being creative became a very important component to healing from some dark places of sorrow. It brought light and happiness back to her life.
Carla’s tools of the trade in her artistic journey are oils. Her art education consists of junior high art for three years and time from 2009-17 in a Tuesday afternoon class with local artist, Ross Myers . Adding to her recent art education have been opportunities to take workshops with such highly acclaimed artists as David Leffel, Sherri McGraw, Derek Penix, Daniel Keys, Kelli Folsom, Charles Ewing, Christopher Westfall, Romel de la Torre, Tim Tyler, Lori Putnum, Kevin Beilfuss, Patrick Saunders and Gil Adams.
In the beginning the love of flowers, color and light are what made the brush flow on her canvas. Now landscapes and an occasional pet painting drive the need to push paint around. Since the pandemic, Carla has been doing more in-depth retrospective into her life and this has brought about a series of self-portraits.
Carla is a member of several organizations, local and national. She has also shown in the famed Salmagundi Club with Allied Artist in NYC for the past 3 years. She has received many local awards, some being, 1st place in the MORE Color show at the Dennis R. Neill Equality Center in Tulsa, and 1st in Alpha Rho Tau member show.
She was first introduced to art in junior high, carrying around a drawing pad everywhere she went. In 2009, art and being creative became a very important component to healing from some dark places of sorrow. It brought light and happiness back to her life.
Carla’s tools of the trade in her artistic journey are oils. Her art education consists of junior high art for three years and time from 2009-17 in a Tuesday afternoon class with local artist, Ross Myers . Adding to her recent art education have been opportunities to take workshops with such highly acclaimed artists as David Leffel, Sherri McGraw, Derek Penix, Daniel Keys, Kelli Folsom, Charles Ewing, Christopher Westfall, Romel de la Torre, Tim Tyler, Lori Putnum, Kevin Beilfuss, Patrick Saunders and Gil Adams.
In the beginning the love of flowers, color and light are what made the brush flow on her canvas. Now landscapes and an occasional pet painting drive the need to push paint around. Since the pandemic, Carla has been doing more in-depth retrospective into her life and this has brought about a series of self-portraits.
Carla is a member of several organizations, local and national. She has also shown in the famed Salmagundi Club with Allied Artist in NYC for the past 3 years. She has received many local awards, some being, 1st place in the MORE Color show at the Dennis R. Neill Equality Center in Tulsa, and 1st in Alpha Rho Tau member show.
