In the 1990s he adopted the alias "Jimmy C", and become well known for his aerosol art murals and his work in city and regional communities across Australia.
After completing his arts degree in 1997 and then his Master of Visual Arts at the University of South Australia in 2002, Cochran became known for his urban realist narrative paintings, painted in oil, and often depicting the marginalised human subject in the context of the urban environment.
He sometimes used religious or mythological allegories to illustrate the existential or spiritual plight of the contemporary subject in the city.
This technique developed into what he called the "drip paintings" and the "scribble paintings", composed of layers of coloured drips or energetic lines to form cityscapes and portraits.
[1][2] In 2018 he painted a mural in Wright Street, Adelaide city centre, titled "The Portrait of Stephen Goldsmith" with Eizabeth Close, in honour of Kaurna elder Stevie Goldsmith, who died in 2017.