Anne Hernandez, "Al Amanecer" - El Paso, TX

Anne Hernandez, AVANCE Board Member, has once again created a masterpiece that is sure to be a favorite amongst event attendees. A mosaic of beautiful tiles and glass, the heart will be on display for all to see come the 3rd of February.

Alejandra Akiceri Carrillo Estrada, "I Rather Eat Butterflies For Lunch" - El Paso, TX

Born in Cd. Juarez, raised in El Paso, Alejandra Carrillo-Estrada is a recent graduate from UTEP. She earned her degree in studio art metals and sculpture graduating with honors and is a recipient of the Luis Jimenez Scholarship Award. Carrillo likes to work with found objects and alternative materials in both her jewelry and in sculptures. She was also the gallery coordinator while attending UTEP at the Union Gallery. Carrillo curated the exhibitions such as “Green: Young, Lush and Blooming” and “Blurring the Borderlines” along with coordinating a total of 10 exhibitions showcased at the Union Gallery.

Carrillo-Estrada has shown her work in El Paso, participated in “Las Artistas: Fine Art Craft Sale” for three consecutive years, and was in the “Annual Juried Student Show” at the Rubin Center for the Visual Arts twice. She also earned an Honorable Mention Award in sculpture in 2008 for “Premio Chihuahua”. She is currently working as a bench jeweler and her work was recently selected for the Society of North American Goldsmiths’ “Exhibition in Motion” at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.

Becky Hendrick - "The Wild Rose" - La Union, NM

During her forty-plus year "art life," Becky Hendrick has worked in many media and genres including painting, multi-media constructions, participatory installations, and performance art. She received her BFA in painting from Newcomb College of Tulane University in 1969 and the MFA from the Instituto Allende in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, in 1978. She has taught studio and lecture classes in five college art programs, and is currently on the faculty at University of Texas at El Paso where she teaches Whole Arts, a course integrating visual art, dance, music, and theater. Her work is in numerous private, corporate, and museum collections, including the El Paso Museum of Art, El Paso Holocaust Museum, New Mexico State University, Meridian Museum of Art, and the Mississippi museum of Art. Hendrick is the author of Getting It: A Guide to Understanding and Appreciating Art (Houghton Mifflin Company), About and Through the Arts: Lessons and Activities for Creating Teaching and Learning (Kendall Hunt Publishers), and ____ 's Book of Beliefs, available online from iUniverse.com. For over twenty years she has been a frequent contributor of arts criticism to regional and national arts periodicals, most recently Artlies, published in Houston. She received an award for arts criticism from the Kansas City Arts Alliance in 1986. In addition to her art, teaching, and writing, Becky Hendrick serves as host of the Border Art Residency, founded by her husband, sculptor Willie Ray Parish, on their property in rural La Union, New Mexico. She and Parish divide their time between El Paso/La Union and Puerto Peñasco, Sonora, Mexico.

Willie Ray Parish - "Untitled" - La Union, NM

Willie Ray Parish was born in Tupelo, Mississippi and has been an artist and a sculptor for over 40 years. Recently showing at Baylor University's Martin Museum of Art, and "Earthbound, The State of Sculpture in Texas" at the Art Museum of South Texas in Corpus Christi and the Midland Texas Outdoor Sculpture Exhibition. Recently installed a $55,000 commission for the city of El Paso, Texas involving five sculptures in a city Sculpture park. His work have been shown from coast to coast. Parish is the Sculpture professor at the University of Texas at El Paso. He is the founder and director of the Border Art Residency in La Union, New Mexico. He lives in La Union, New Mexico and Puerto Peñasco, Mexico with his wife and artist and writer Becky Hendrick.

Robert Dozal - "Dos Culturas Unidas" - El Paso, TX

Robert has been donating painted hearts to AVANCE almost every year since the inception of Toma Mi Corazon 10 years ago. A Former winner of El Paso Scene's " Heart of El Paso Award" he loves the challenge of creating clever works that relate well to the heart shape and depict the beauty of El Paso area, especially the people. Each of Robert's corazones is done in a variety of techniques including pointillism, thick impasto's and tiny, hair -like lines like the ones used in egg-tempera paintings. Though the method may be stunning, it is the images and the feeling that are more impressive. Robert participates in local, regional and national shows and has won the Esther Wells Collection award at the National Watercolor Society's Annual Exhibition.

Roy Van der Aa - "Untitled" - Las Cruces, NM

Born in Holland, Roy Van der Aa grew up in Montreal, Canada. He studied art as a teen under Dutch impressionist Gerard van Dykhof in the seventies. His formal education includes 2 years of Fine Art specialty in John Abbott College, and 4 years at Concordia University. He had his first One Man Show in 1978. In 1981, he founded Zones, a cooperative fine arts studio and exhibition space which operated untill he emigrated to the U.S. in 1989. He is a founding member of Artforms and has exhibited with the group since its inception in 1995. He has shown in group exhibits at Galerie Alegre in 2003, the Border Artists and Friends Show in 2004 and exhibits with artists who are members of The Society of Layerists in Multi-Media. Van der Aa has had solo shows at the Tombaugh Gallery in 2004, Oasis 7 in 2005 and Laughing at the Sun and the Visitors and Convention Bureau in 2006. He participated in "Choreographed Militancy." a two person show at the Corbett Center in 2007 where he featured 21 works. He was included in "The Man Show" at D. Rothermel Fine Art for Artshop in 2008. His latest solo show was "It'll put your Eye Out" at the Unsettled Gallery in 2009. He was featured at In Effect gallery where he was a gallery artist from 2008-09. Van der Aa is a multi-media collage artist.

Diana de la Torre - "Dandelion of Innocence" El Paso, TX

Diana de la Torre was born in East Los Angeles and grew up in Socorro. Her love of drawing has been never ending since she was four years old. She is a proud military wife and mother of one. She has a degree in Graphic Design from Southwest College in San Diego, and she manages a full-time job while also working part-time as freelance graphic designer. Diana enjoys donating her time and talent to non-profits. Her son is her current inspiration. The innocence and wonderment of discovery that her son holds is what fascinates her the most, and she tries to convey it through her artwork. This is the second year she has participated in the Toma Mi Corazon event.