Erwin Pineda received his bachelor's degree in fine arts majoring in painting at the Eulogio "Amang" Rodriguez institute of Science and Technology. His works were considered impressionist and abstract from 1003 to 1007. Then, his concentration shifted to realism and surrealism which he called "Reptalialism".

The context behind reptalialism is the blatant similarities between reptiles and humans: cold and cruel. Reptiles are not able to produce hear in their body as they need to adapt the heat from their surroundings, hence hey are cold. Pineda figuratively relates this fact to human negative tendencies which are being unconcerned and dispassionate towards others, and wicked to humans, animals, plants, and the environment, especially when outrage arises. Sometimes in calmest acts or engagements along with good intentions end up in unimaginable violence, and sometime curious unethical experimentation leads to madness. As Friedrich Nietzsche put it: man is the cruelest animal. These are personified in Pineda's steampunk-influenced painting.