Because he often had to travel for work, given that in-door plumbing was still uncommon,[3] Valjean was raised in Tulsa in the home of her maternal grandparents, Sada and Fred Beck,[1][4] who were of Welch ancestry.

[1] In 1966 at the Philbrook Indian Annual, Hessing placed second, behind Joan Hill (Muscogee Creek/Cherokee, 1930–2020),[13] the first woman designated as a "Master Artist" by the Five Civilized Tribes Museum.

[14] In 1971, Hessing won first prize for painting in the Scottsdale Exhibition's 10th Annual[15] and the following year was the Choctaw Heritage Award winner at the Five Civilized Tribes Museum in Muskogee, Oklahoma.

[19] Among her contemporaries, who had earned the distinction at the time of her recognition were Troy Anderson (Cherokee of Northeastern Alabama), Bob Bell (Choctaw Nation), Enoch Kelly Haney (Seminole/Muscogee Creek), Joan Hill (Muscogee Creek/Cherokee), Saint Clair Homer II (Choctaw Nation), Bert Seabourn, Jason Stone, and Willard Stone.

[21] She won the Pierce-Avery Memorial Award a second time in 1980[22] and that year had a solo exhibit in Washington, DC, at Via Gambaro Gallery.

[8] In 1985, she participated along with her sister Jane and Mary Adair (Cherokee Nation), Jean Bales (Iowa), Joan Brown, Sharron Ahtone Harjo (Kiowa), Ruthe Blalock Jones (Shawnee/Peoria), and Virginia Stroud (Keetoowah Band Cherokee/Muscogee Creek) in the Daughters of the Earth exhibition which traveled for three years (1985–1988), touring in the United States and Europe.

[25] The U.S. Department of the Interior has preserved her works in two collections — Amerindian Circle and Indian Arts and Crafts Board, both located in Washington, DC.

[11] [17] In 2008, the Institute of American Indian Arts hosted a retrospective of her works, Valjean McCarty Hessing Honored, and her painting The Black Hat was featured on the cover of The Santa Fe New Mexican's issue of February 1, 2008.