With her colourful artwork celebrating New Zealand’s native birds and bush, it’s easy to see why Hayley King, aka Flox, is one of the most in-demand artists in the country.
But when Hayley first started the Haus of Flox at the age of 24, she never imagined her work would be quite so popular.
“Every time I see one of my products in a shop or one of my pieces in a real estate magazine, I have to pinch myself,” she laughs.
Growing up in Kaitaia, Hayley spent her early childhood outdoors exploring her local beaches and camping with her parents. That fascination and love of Aotearoa’s stunning landscapes is a major inspiration behind her work and the reason she is so passionate about conservation.
“I’ve always been a bit of an Earth lover,” tells the 43-year-old. “My work is all about bringing awareness of sustainability and endangered species, and celebrating the natural world.”
As part of her conservation work, Auckland-based Hayley regularly goes into schools to teach workshops about how to care for our ecosystems and as a Keep New Zealand Beautiful ambassador, she is taking part next week in the nation’s annual Clean Up Week, in which thousands of Kiwis come together to pick up litter in their local communities.
Last year, 30,000 volunteers gathered enough rubbish to cover more than 2500 rugby fields and Hayley hopes this year will be equally as successful – if not more.
“It’s something that makes a positive and tangible impact on the local community. I cannot believe that people still litter in 2022,” she laments.
“It’s important to pass on the kaupapa [ideas] of supporting our natural environment when children are young, because then those kids won’t grow up to be adults who throw their rubbish on the road.”
It’s hard to imagine but there was a time when Hayley’s future lay firmly in the sporting world. From the age of 10, she was focused on a squash career. She trained every day after school and every weekend she travelled from her home in Kaitaia to Auckland to compete in tournaments.
The hard work was worth it and in 1997, she travelled to Rio de Janeiro in Brazil to represent New Zealand at the junior world championships. At one point, she was ranked third in the country in the junior squash division.
But aged 20, Hayley made the abrupt decision to hang up her racket to pursue her other passion – art.
“I just knew I had come to the end of my time with squash,” she recalls. “I was putting all my eggs into one basket and I didn’t want to get to 35, when you’re classified as a master in squash, and not have anything else in my kete [basket]. The week after I quit, I enrolled in art school.”
She hasn’t looked back. When Hayley graduated from Unitec in 2003, she was determined to make a living from her art, so she
put herself through a business course to give herself the best chance at achieving her goals.
Despite her success, Hayley admits it hasn’t been easy building her business while being a mum to sons Bo, 16, and Indi, eight, who she says are the driving force behind her work.
“Everything I do is for them,” she enthuses. “The hardest part is finding the balance between being a parent and raising what I call my other child, my business. Sometimes I have to work seven days. It’s often long hours. But I just make sure that I make time for my kids.”
Now that Bo is older, Hayley is delighted he’s showing interest in her work and even joins her in the studio sometimes to work on his own pieces. Both her sons also have creative fathers – Bo’s dad is an artist and Indi’s is a photographer, so she feels confident they will follow in her footsteps.
“All the adults around them are artists and creatives. It’s quite an unusual bubble that they live in,” she smiles.
