Once Upon a Lipstick

by Anna Potton-Grapes

Date: Aug 22 – Aug 28Space: Small Gallery

Once Upon a Lipstick reimagines old, community-donated makeup as paint—transforming objects of personal ritual into dreamy portraits and floral motifs. Created entirely from second-hand cosmetics—everything from lipsticks and nail polish to eye pencils and blush—this body of work honours sustainability while infusing each piece with traces of lived experience. Blush becomes bloom; lipstick, a lingering trace of identity. Sentimental and surreal, these works explore the intimacy of memory, motherhood, and femininity. They invite viewers to pause, to linger in the softness, and to remember those quiet, treasured moments that often slip by unnoticed.

Anna Potton-Grapes is a Hawke’s Bay artist who enjoys working with unconventional materials to explore themes of memory, transformation, and emotion. She teaches Art and Technology at Iona College and has twice exhibited garments in the World of WearableArt. Her love of resourcefulness is rooted in her upbringing—her father, an engineer, could create solutions from whatever was at hand, while her mother had a gift for uncovering beauty in second-hand treasures.

Opening night Friday August 22nd 5-7pm.

Cosmetics donated from the Napier & Havelock North community that have been used to make this collection of art