Carla Baudrons

Carla was born “Carla Marie Reeve” in Knoxville, TN to Larry and Rena Reeve, who homeschooled and raised her and her six siblings in the nondenominational tradition of young earth creationism. She was a terrible, undiagnosed ADHD student and part of Berean Christian High School’s Independent Study Program class of 2005.

She began her creative career as a t-shirt graphic designer at the tender age of sixteen, which was also the year she started working in coffee shops and restaurants. She fell in love for the first and last time in 2004, and after graduating high school, she joined Youth With A Mission in Northern Ireland to see if she might make a good missionary (she didn’t).

In 2011, Carla decided to move to Norman, OK, but unfortunately those plans were thwarted by a handsome young man named Adam McGarity Bryant, who needed some encouragement and companionship. She eventually did move though, in 2013, with him, to Colorado, so he could attend the American Academy of Bookbinding in Telluride. They lived in Denver for a few years, got married in 2015 in Strawberry Plains, TN, then moved to Durango, CO so he could be closer to the school. It was here that she changed her name to “Carla Marie Bryant.”

Unfortunately, due to unforeseen circumstances outside of her control, their marriage was almost immediately on the rocks, so Carla decided to move to Albuquerque, NM in 2016 to regroup. Adam reluctantly moved with her, and for one glorious year, Carla did what she wanted, before he dragged her off again, this time to Iowa City, IA for grad school.

They spent five years there, during which time, Adam got his degree, Carla got breast cancer, and the world got a pandemic. Their marital issues steadily increased throughout. Carla tried to focus on her art and began using the surname “Baudrons.” She founded the artist accountability program “Art Office,” and made lifelong friends.

In 2022, just days after Carla’s last surgery, the two moved to Ithaca, NY, where Adam had accepted a position at Cornell (heard of it?). It was there that Carla legally changed her name to “Carla Maribelle Baudrons” and moved out of the house with her “save the marriage” cat, Rowan Tolliver Baudrons. After months of couples therapy and nine painful years of contemplation—she finally filed for divorce in 2023.

The next two years in New York contained multitudes. Carla came out as bisexual, got a DWI, started dabbling in low-stakes sex work, survived a murder attempt, got a new truck, moved full-time into a travel trailer RV, quit her fancy job in nonprofit development to clean houses, attended her first ren faire, gala, and international work conference, maxed out some credit cards, and built even more lifelong relationships.

In November of 2025, she hit the road back to Knoxville, where her mom had recently been diagnosed with a rare cancer. Since then, she’s been parked outside her long-time friend Josh “Damn” Casada’s home in Old North Knoxville, working at the Cansler YMCA, Central Flats & Taps, Knoxville Botanical Garden & Arboretum, and cleaning houses.