Paxton was born in Shreveport, Louisiana in 1970. At the age of 4 his parents moved back to their hometown of Athens, Alabama where they built a house on Elk River outside of town. Paxton spent most of his childhood there roaming freely in the surrounding woods. From a very young age Paxton showed signs of an active imagination and a growing creative ability. This was seen in his regular acts of sculpting his food into art forms at the dinner table and his miniature creations of boats and cities down to the last detail, ready for their small inhabitants. With his love for animals and nature, Paxton's first thoughts were of becoming a wildlife artist, but there was also his overflowing imagination and vivid dreams that seemed to put a unique twist on his art.

Paxton loved to draw like many children and when he won his first art award for a drawing of a clown bouncing on springs with a frog in the rain at age 7 he was hooked. Throughout his early years, his time was filled with creating his art and practicing the sport of tennis, which his father had started him on at the age of five.

When Paxton was 13 his father bought a Salvador Dali print and he was introduced to the world of Surrealism. Here were a group of artists whose works gave some justification for his unique imagination.

Paxton went on to earn a scholarship in both art and tennis to attend Queens University in Charlotte, NC. His time at college was divided between his drive for tennis and his passion for art. By the end of his second year his sights became set on putting all his efforts into becoming a professional artist. Graduating from Queens University in 1991 with a double major in studio art and art history, Paxton packed up his things and headed west to California to pursue his art career.

By this time Paxton's oil paintings had grown to portray all the characteristics of the great Surrealist movement of the 1930's. But all this was about to change.

While in San Francisco Paxton landed his first big art opening at the Trojanosca Gallery and moved to Carmel to paint for the show. It was during this time that he wrote "10th Dimensional Theology", a strange writing that changed all his theories and concepts on the make-up of dreams. This new writing led to the creation of Midrealism in 1992, an artistic belief system based on dreams, which started his art career off at full force.

Paxton's career has blossomed and grown over the last 10 years with numerous shows, awards and publications. Midrealism has been his main focus until 2003 when he began creating a new imaginative fantasy art world called Tridoria .

This new world, while still occasionally using dreams as inspiration, does not follow the theories and guidelines laid down in the writings of Midrealism. Tridoria is based more on creating a unique mystical fantasy art world full of fascinating characters, races and environments.

Paxton also began painting loose expressionistic paintings using his left hand for a short while, back in 1998. These paintings were a way for him to give his right hand and his mind a rest from the detailed and time consuming style he is known for. The paintings were started up again in 2003 and have developed into a separate unique style.