Born and educated in India, Puneeta Mittal earned a Master's degree in Hindi Literature at the Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi. She subsequently taught in elementary schools for several years. After moving to the United States in 1994, Puneeta found her passion for clay and focused on exploring clay forms and surfaces with the guidance and motivation of Betty Busby of "The Clayroom" studio in fall of 1995. Puneeta has successfully started and enriched ceramics program for summer camps and has continued to work and teach at "The Clayroom" till its closure in the summer 0f 2005.

In 2006 she graduated with an MA in Studio Art from Adelphi University and went on to complete her MFA with Long Island University at the C.W. Post campus.

She has participated in various shows on Long Island and NY City where she has also sold her work. Her extensive teaching experience has provided her a unique opportunity to teach ceramics as an Adjunct Faculty at Adelphi University. She is a board member of the Art League of Long Island and the Long Island Craft Guild.

Puneeta works in two studios (ceramics/sculpture and painting), creating an enchanting array of original pieces in varied mediums. The influences of her rich heritage and culture can be seen in her work today.  With a strong belief that everything that is born, grows and withers away to be yet born again - incessant change from one to another proceeds in an evolutionary cycle - clay has proved to be an ideal medium for her expressions. Her love for color and textures in nature - internal and external, has proved to be an unlimited resource for the blank canvas.

Artist Statement

With a strong belief that everything that is born, grows and withers away to be yet born again - incessant change from one to another proceeds in an evolutionary cycle - I chose not to be limited to a small corner space that defines who I am and what I must make. To quote Dalai Lama " Within the seed of the cause of events is the seed for their cessation and disintegration".

The ceramic sculptures I make are simplified in form and use the layering of glazes to create the surface that is an imagined space; through them I build landscape and terrain. I find my inspiration from the world viewed singularly through the lens of an inverted fluorescent microscope. Not far removed from my ceramic process of glazing with minerals and oxides, layered on the clay body, my oil paintings have the interplay of colors and the quality of depth that create an inner landscape without compromising with the content.

I continue to work with ceramic forms that reflect my own sensitivity and awareness of the material itself and its traditions. The pieces that best integrate the form and surface, the spontaneity and fluidity of the clay along with the object's use, are my personal triumphs.

I am excited each time I find a new direction to experiment. As the work progresses, I tend to become more concerned with the overall perspective, and my own personal challenge in trying to know who I am in the context of the world I create and the one I live in. Consequently, I pause to look at my own work more critically and objectively.