[3] Hawkins moved from Sunnyvale to San Francisco in 1970 where he became involved in the glam and then the early punk music and art scene.

Attracted to Haight Ashbury and the counter culture at first, in the end it was the natural beauty of the city, the public parks, cemeteries, and waterfronts that began to become the subjects of his artwork.

His first group showing titled "Three Americans" at Club 57 was with fellow artists Edward Brezinski and Brian Goodfellow in 1981.

[5] Hawkins then participates in a group show with artists, Jack Barth, Vincent Gallo, Bruce Mellett and Gustavo Ojeda at the Luhring Augustine and Hodes Gallery in New York in 1985.

[1] That year, Hawkins illustrated an anthology of poems for the poet, critic and artist Rene Ricard titled, "Love Poems.,[7] edited by Richard Hell.

Hawkins lived in the Battery Park neighborhood of the World Trade Center and lost his residence on September 11, 2001.

Hawkins was joined by fellow artists, Castronovo, Rita Ackermann, Frederick Fab Five Freddy Brathwaite, Dan Colen, Ronnie Cutrone, Jean-Philippe Delhomme, Jane Dickson, Duncan Hannah, Brad Kahlhamer, Nate Lowman, Marco Perego, Lee Quiñones, Tom Sachs, Kenny Scharf, Walter Steding and Ouattara Watts.

[13] In 2011, Hawkins collaborated with Dublin artist Liam Ryan for a two-man show of their works at The Residence Gallery in London.

But now that he has a large, madcap, ferociously witty, and startlingly original body of work behind him; now that he has gone through his self-crucifixion phase and resurrected himself from the dead; now that he has allowed the smile to follow quickly the scowl; now, I think, it's time he can relax and enjoy making artwork on his own roving, druidical, picaroon, anarchic, swashbuckling terms.

"[17] Breidenbach, Tom (October, 2008), Artforum ..."at once brooding and celebratory, a triumph of a sort of "outsider" aesthetic that refuses to be pinned down to one attitude, whether cynical.