Feed Your Creative Side: Three Kiwi Artists On What Actually Fuels Them

There’s no one way to make a mark. For some, creativity is a full-time practice; for others, it’s simply a way of seeing the world, and for these artists, it’s a bit of both.

We brought together three of Aotearoa’s most recognisable creative voices: FLOX (F), Haser (H) and James Hunt (JH). From FLOX’s intricate, nature-inspired work to Haser’s bold fusion of street art and Māori influences, and James Hunt’s playful, colourful murals, each has built a visual language that’s unmistakably their own.

So, what happens before the paint hits the wall? We asked them the same five questions to get a little closer to the people behind the art.

The conversation comes as BurgerFuel celebrates Creative, Sweet, its platform for championing Aotearoa’s artists, makers and wider creative community. Because behind every piece of work is something that gets it started. Here’s what fuels theirs.

What reliably gets your creative brain switched on?

F: Getting out into the world. I’m a really visual person, so I need to see things, experience things, and absorb what’s around me. Travel is obviously a massive creative trigger, but it doesn’t have to mean getting on a plane—a walk, a garden, a new neighbourhood, a bird I haven’t noticed before, an unexpected colour combination can all do it.

H: I think coffee is something that kickstarts my creative engine. I wouldn’t say it’s a necessity, but it’s definitely a push start when my battery is dead.

JH: Burning some sage and scrolling through 10 or 15 Instagram Reels really gets the creative brain going. I’m taking the piss, but I might actually have to try the sage as a pre-painting ritual. Honestly, though, it usually starts with getting into my little studio and pottering around. Even something simple like priming a canvas is often enough to get things moving.”

Where do you go, literally or mentally, when you need to find a new idea?

F: I go outside. If I’m creatively stuck, sitting in the studio trying to force an idea generally won’t solve it. I need to change my environment. I’ll walk, get around nature, go somewhere I haven’t been before, travel if I’m lucky enough to have the opportunity—basically give my brain something new to respond to.

H: Regarding going somewhere to cultivate new ideas, sometimes I need to leave my comfort zone, whether that’s my house, city, or country. But going somewhere else doesn’t mean I’m hoping to find something there; sometimes I need to look at my space from an outside perspective and see how the world sees me.

JH: Most of my ideas arrive in the shower, which is really annoying because I can’t write them down, and I’m a forgetful ADHD king, so they often go straight down the drain. When I need to actively work through something and actually remember it, I’ll sit at my desk with a big sheet of A3 paper and a pen and see where it takes me.

What’s something you’ve been noticing lately that’s made you want to make something and create?

F: I’ve become really interested again in the physicality of making. We live in such a digital world now, and there are incredible tools available to us, but lately it’s actually made me appreciate the analogue parts of my practice even more. Cutting a stencil by hand, layering spray paint, overspray, imperfections, getting paint on my hands—all of those things that leave evidence that a human being actually made something.

H: I spent my whole life trying to figure out who I am and what my limits and capabilities are. Since the emergence of AI, nothing has made me want to double down on the creative process more than letting something else fulfil that role. On a more positive note, I have a large group of creative friends that inspire me. Watching them tap into their own creative process and be active in their respective spaces ignites a little flame in me that can sometimes be hard to keep alight.

JH: My wife is hapū, so lately I’ve been watching her puku grow and thinking about how much our lives are about to change. It’s made me want to capture something of this strange, exciting in-between period before we become parents.

​What’s one thing you always need around you when you’re creating?

F: A tidy workshop. I’m definitely one of those people who needs to reset before I can begin again. At the end of a project, especially after a big mural or a really intensive studio session, everything can look like a bomb has gone off, so before I move on to the next thing, I need to put everything back in its place.

H: I carry an A5 Moleskine journal with me everywhere I go, and every day I create a small drawing; it’s a process that has been going on since 2019. At the bare minimum, it allows me to be creative every day, even if it’s only for a few minutes. I am currently on my 27th book with around 2600 journal entries.

JH: My dog, Taxi. I wouldn’t say I absolutely need her there, but her favourite spot is in my studio, and I love having her around while I work. Taxi and I usually listen to NTS Radio, flicking between the two live stations until we find something that suits the mood.

If you had to feed someone one thing that would help them understand your creative world, what would it be—and why?

F: Colour. I know you can’t technically eat colour, but if I could serve someone the FLOX world on a plate, it would be an absolute explosion of it—lush greens, hot pinks, deep reds, unexpected hits of colour, beautiful natural forms and probably something slightly wild thrown into the mix. Actually, thinking about it, that’s probably why BurgerFuel and FLOX have been such a fun collision. Neither of us is particularly interested in beige.

​H: Nostalgia. My work is definitely inspired by my outlook on life as a young kid, when my inspiration was fuelled by imagination rather than experience. The bold lines in my work are supposed to be suggestive; the way a child draws a dog and claims that’s what it is, is the same approach I take when I am creating. I like my works to spark a conversation with the viewer, inspire them to take a journey down their own memory lane.

​JH: Fairy bread. I served it alongside Cheerios, lollies and the usual cheese-and-cracker situation at my first solo show, and I think it sums up my creative world pretty well. We all have to grow up eventually, but I think it’s possible, and important, to hold on to your playful, childish side too.

If there’s one thing these three artists make clear, it’s that inspiration rarely comes from just one place. It can be found in the everyday, in where you come from, the people around you, or simply giving yourself enough space to make something for the sake of it.

That’s what BurgerFuel’s Creative, Sweet is all about—celebrating the artists, makers and creative minds adding a little more colour to Aotearoa, and the many different ways they see, make and express it.

There you go folks, consider your creative side officially fed.

Editor’s note: This article is sponsored by BurgerFuel and proudly endorsed by The Urban List. To find out more about who we work with and why, read our editorial policy here.

Image credit: Supplied.