Mr. Pinkman uses referenced images, shapes, and colors to create new meanings, associations, and narratives by overlaying them on his memories of past events. As someone born in the middle of the 20th century, he has been influenced by the work of important artists such as Johns, Rauschenberg, Warhol, Haring, Bacon, and Hockney, who produced some of the world’s most significant artwork during his lifetime. Through his art, he explores his experiences as a gay man coming out and navigating the latter half of the 20th and early 21st centuries. His work reflects the struggle of communicating in a hostile environment, where reading between the lines was crucial.

His has been influenced by the skills he learned during the AIDS epidemic, the loss of close friends and family through the years, and the COVID pandemic’s isolation. The layering in his work explores multiple narratives and perspectives within a single piece, adding visual interest and complexity.

He works with traditional materials such as canvas, paper, paint, and ink, and each surface’s limitations set the parameters. While each group of works begins with a concept, the act of creating takes on a life of its own. He intentionally uses his left hand, at times, creating strokes and lines backward. This affords him a way of overriding the habits of right-handed penmanship learned in school. As the artist says, “Each work has its own self-generated identity and works together in a conversation. I do not expect anything from them when they are completed and wait to hear others’ reactions to fully understand what they are about.”