Do you have plans for Friday, Oct. 12?

Cranberry Patch will be at the opening night of the Associated Artists of Butler County faculty show at the Cranberry Township Municipal Center. The exhibit runs through Nov. 9.

To build excitement for the show, Cranberry Patch is featuring a different local artist on the site each day leading up to the opening night.

“Poppy,” an original watercolor by Mary Alice Carmody-Diana, also will be raffled off at the event. Attendees must be present to win the artwork, which will be on display at the Patch table.

Today, we feature a profile on Heather Hertel, whose pieces “Vermillion I” “Vermillion II” “Plume” will be on display at the show.

Name: Heather Hertel:

Education: MFA Painting, Edinboro University of Pennsylvania, MS Art Education, Syracuse University, BFA Painting, Syracuse University.

Bio: After graduating from Mercyhurst Preparatory School in Erie in 1991, Hertel continued her education as an artist and a rower at Syracuse University in New York, learning under the direction of painter Jerome Witkin.

Hertel received a Bachelor of Fine Art in Painting in 1995 and a Master of Science in Art Education in 1998.

She lived in Miami, Fla. and coached rowing for the University of Miami from 1995 to 1997. She returned to Western Pennsylvania to complete her Master of Fine Art in Painting in 2003 at Edinboro University of Pennsylvania, where she also instructed Foundation courses 2004-06.

Art endeavors have taken Heather to the Santa Repararta International School of Art in Florence, Italy in 2002 and to residencies at Virginia Center for the Creative Arts in Amherst, Virginia in 2007 and Vermont Studio Center in Johnson, Vermont in 2008.

Currently, Hertel is assistant professor of art, painting at Slippery Rock University.

She continues to teach at the collegiate level, while also painting and exhibiting regionally, nationally and internationally.