VISUAL ART

LEX ARCHIBALD

Lex is the Metalsmithing teacher at Mission Hills High School. Lex earned her BFA (concentration in metalsmithing) and her teaching credential from Edinboro University of PA in 2005. She earned her MFA (Concentration in metalsmithing) from San Diego State University in 2012. Lex is an active artist in her field by participating in art exhibitions both locally and nationally, and having her own metals business. She has seventeen years of experience teaching art in a variety of contexts and grade levels.

Lex’s teaching career began as a highschool ceramics and drawing teacher in her hometown Pittsburgh, PA. She shortly moved to pursue life in San Diego. She attended the rigorous and well-recognised graduate program at San Diego State University. Lex’s early career in San Diego was a balance between graduate school and teaching elementary art. She led a non-profit after school art program in San Diego, and she also worked in the San Diego Unified School District as an elementary art teacher.

Lex has been teaching at Mission Hills High School since 2013. She started the Metalsmithing program, and expanded it to offer Metalsmithing 2 and AP portfolio. Art provides high school students a place of exploration through risk-taking. It promotes self expression, confidence, and connection. Lex is serving her fourth year as VAPA team leader, and has had the opportunity to support a dedicated, motivated team. She is most proud of the  Annual Kaleidoscope Festival of the Arts. Most recently, the VAPA team is working hard to sustain the Public Arts Project (PAP). PAP is a campus beautification initiative. It empowers our students through student created public art pieces installed on campus. Last year, the first mural was painted on a wall close to the entrance of the campus. It has been a huge hit with students and staff.  Lex and the VAPA team are working closely with Admin to continue adding student art each year.

Lex continues to develop work in her home studio and accepts commissions. Her current endeavor is a new series titled: Hum-Bowls. These are hand-hammered wearable singing bowls that produce sound. The sound soothes and calms the wearer. Lex, influenced by the teachings of yoga, also started a yoga program at MHHS. Her new body of metal work is inspired by her own experiences with yoga, meditation and sound therapy. Lex has found a way to marry her two passions together of metalsmithing and yoga. Sharing metalsmithing and yoga with teens is one of the most rewarding experiences for Lex.  When Lex is not at school, she enjoys spending time with her very creative 4 year old daughter, Mae. 

CARI JEAN DANIELS

Cari Jean Daniels came to Mission Hills in 2018 to take over the ceramics program. Since then, the class has been bustling with the same positive, hardworking and creative energy that she displays. In addition to ceramics, Cari Jean oversees the cheerleading and dance team programs at MHHS. She is also currently enrolled in a Master's of Fine Arts program through Fort Hays State University and will be earning an MFA in Ceramics over the next few years. In her free time you can find her doing ceramics with her students after school and on Saturdays as well as at home in her garage! She also enjoys being outdoors, spending time with her husband and cat at home and hanging out with friends and colleagues. 

HEIDI KNISELEY

Heidi Kniseley works to create an engaging, standards-based art curriculum for her high school students. Currently, she teaches 9th-12th graders at Mission Hills High School, where she teaches Yearbook, Video Production, and Journalism. She has taught art at the elementary level, where she collaborated with teachers to create lessons that integrated the arts. Heidi started the art program at Double Peak K-8, where she created VAPA classes in Intro Art, Advanced Art, Digital Art, and Yearbook for 7th and 8th graders. She also co-created a year-long social entrepreneurship class for 6th-graders and taught middle school English Language Arts. She has presented at the Palm Springs CUE, STEAM symposium, SDCOE Tech Conference, SD CUE, and Arts Mega Conference several times, as well as led a district-wide professional development for teachers on the topic of integrating the arts into content standards. Heidi is passionate about seamlessly integrating the arts into her classroom and creating project-based lessons that allow student choice and real-world experience.

ERIN LUCAS

I love the immediacy and reality of photography. Yes, I know photographs can be altered now, but I was "classically" trained using film cameras and tray developing at UC San Diego, so I value the idea of a photograph being a moment captured in time. While my passion for photography started in my undergrad work, it developed into a lifelong passion. I enjoyed frequenting the dark rooms in San Fransisco and abroad in England, before switching to digital. As friends and family began asking for photographs, I turned my passion into a business. I have enjoyed the countless families, children, babies, high school seniors, and weddings I have had the privilege of photographing over the last decade. I am grateful I get to teach photography at MHHS, where I have been a grizzly since 2007. I taught for five years prior, but Mission Hills is my home.

NICOLE NIXON

Hello!  My name is Nicole Nixon and I teach 7th and 8th grade Visual Arts and Yearbook at Double Peak School.  This is my second year teaching at DPS and my 19th year teaching Visual Arts.  

I received my BFA in Art Education from the University of Arizona and my Master’s in Teaching from San Diego State University.  I am fortunate to have a career in a field where I am able to teach my passion and work with the next generation of artists!  I love getting to see the joy in my students’ eyes when they create something they are proud of.  I aspire to teach each of my students the importance of the arts in our world, as well as how to be creative problem solvers, critical thinkers and how to maintain an open mind, all while creating works of art that ignite a passion within themselves. 

When I am not teaching, I enjoy creating, especially painting and mixed media, the beach, camping, museum visits, concerts and road trips with my husband, 13 year old daughter, and our yellow lab.