Meet the Artists: Permutations

"Permutations," paintings by Alicia Peterson & Puneeta Mittal. May 6-June 29. Meet the artists: May 6, 2-4 p.m.

The exhibit of paintings by contemporary artists Alicia Peterson and Puneeta Mittal are designed to transport you into a meditative state, as the cyclical properties of their paintings generate opportunities for self-reflection and optimism. The natural world has been a source of inspiration since prehistoric cave paintings, but more recently, climate change has affected our world.  Art reflects the effects of this climate crisis. Peterson and Mittal use science and philosophy to represent earth, sky and water in an abstract style.  These painters are not looking to create a utopian vision but use their media and materials to generate ideas of self-discovery through the action of painting.

 Alicia Peterson describes, a Doctor of Audiology, describes herself as a storyteller. She recognized that she needed to find a more personal voice and discovered she can do that through painting. Without brushes Peterson paints with her hands.  She dances while tossing, and dripping paint, orchestrating shadow and light on round, oval, rectangle and square canvases.  This dance transcends energy in a magical and poetic alchemy -- a kind of abstracted topography, where colors and shapes appear and perhaps represent a scared planet or a collaboration with the atmosphere. 

Puneeta Mittal developed this series of watercolor paintings during an artist residency in Nuxalbari, a tea estate in the Eastern Himalayas of India. Mittal was born and educated in India. After moving to the US, she continued her studies in art at Adelphi and completed her MFA at Long Island University. She teaches ceramics as an assistant adjunct professor at Suffolk County Community College and Queens College. 

Mittal finds her inspiration from the world viewed singularly through the lens of an inverted fluorescent microscope.  Whether it be clay or paint she incorporates color, calligraphy and sometimes collage, that may read as a lost language.  Her art reflects self-discovery or a sense of place.  She has a strong belief that all that is born, grows, and withers away yet to be born again, through constant change and the cycles of life.