During the 1970s and 80s, Hawkins primarily crafted abstract paintings and sculptures, delving into visual concepts rooted in geometry and astronomy. She created paintings incorporating hieroglyphic elements and crafted polyethylene sculptures suspended from the ceiling. Early in her career, Hawkins frequented the Museum of Modern Art, New York, and spent time exploring galleries on Madison Avenue, where she crossed paths with Linda Good Bryant, becoming involved with Just Above Midtown (JAM). Bryant introduced Hawkins to David Hammons and, later, to Corrine Jennings and Joe Overstreet. By 1978, she showcased her work in “Summer Show: It’s a Crowd” at JAM and held her solo exhibition at the gallery by 1981. In 1985, Hawkins was invited to exhibit her work in “Carnival: Ritual of Reversal” at Kenkeleba House Gallery, a non-profit gallery founded by Jennings and Overstreet. Hawkins established connections with other artists at the heart of the burgeoning black-owned gallery scene in 1970s/80s New York, such as Camille Billops, Vivian E. Browne, Emma Amos, and Thelma Golden.

By the late 1980s, Hawkins shifted her focus towards creating large expressionistic paintings. Her series “Currency of Meaning” features arrows, circles, and triangles, forming a visual vocabulary replicated throughout her body of work. In the early 1990s, Hawkins explored religious themes before transitioning to “Natural Things” (1996), evolving from her study of shapes in the physical world. This exploration led Hawkins to develop “Signs of Civilization” in the early 2000s, a series where she abstractly depicts natural forms and manmade intrusions from a bird’s eye view. In 2019, Hawkins resumed her full artistic practice, incorporating natural earthbound forms like boulders and rocks into her paintings. These works, however, are not intended to be representational; instead, they reinterpret natural phenomena. In her current body of work, Hawkins continues to merge her lifelong fascination with themes of nature, the cosmos, science, and mark-making, while also exploring new color relationships.

Hawkins has served as an Artist in Residence at several institutions, including the Studio Museum in Harlem in 1987, the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts in 1996, the Experimental Printmaking Institute at Lafayette College in 2005, and the Butterfly House in Le Grange, Georgia in 2014. Most recently, Hawkins has been featured in several exhibitions, including “Just Above Midtown: 1974 to Present” at the Museum of Modern Art, New York (2022), “The Inseparables” at STARS Gallery, Los Angeles (2023) “So Let Us All Be Citizens Too” at David Zwirner, London (2023) “Art Basel: Kaufmann Repetto Gallery Group Exhibition,” Milan (2023), and Hollybush Gardens Gallery, London (2023).