Jimmy did not begin painting until 2004, six years before his death. Until about the 1980s, men's traditional art was widely considered sacred by Pitjantjatjara, and was not displayed in public like women's art was. Pintupi men in the north began painting in the 1970s, at Papunya Tula. This was considered sacrilege by other Western Desert groups, because knowledge of sacred law is considered dangerous. The sacred images in the paintings were obscured, though, and encrypted (hidden) by dots and lines. When the art style became popular, more and more Pitjantjatjara men began to paint.