It is surprising to find an artist as young as Paxton Mobley with such a definitive direction. Blending influences of Surrealism with his own spiritual search, the 25 year old Paxton has discovered an intensely focused artistic style and philosophy.
Born in Shreveport, Louisiana, Paxton was raised on the Elk River in Athens, graduating from Athens high School in 1988. While this appears an unlikely home for an artist demonstrating such sophisticated influences, it is notable that Paxton comes from a family of artists and intellectuals. His grandmother painted and his mother is a stained glass artist, while his aunt is an English professor at a local college. When Paxton was young, his father even purchased a Salvador Dali lithograph, a possible contribution to Paxton's own heavily Surrealistic style.
Interestingly, Paxton’s first love was not necessarily art. An accomplished tennis player who achieved a ranking of 21 in the Men's Southern Open, he attended Queens College in North Carolina on both a tennis and an art scholarship. Ultimately, however, Paxton's dual major in art and art history proved painting to be his most fulfilling interest, leading him to move to California immediately upon graduating college.
Paxton credits this move as crucial to his current success. “I knew I had to go to New York or California if I wanted to paint," he explains. I chose California because I'm not that much of a city person. Paxton now resides in Monterey, working part-time as an artifacts specialist at a local museum.
Though he has adopted the term “Midrealism' to describe his work, Paxton’s canvases do indeed reflect the Freudian mindscape of the Surrealist movement. Whether a barren Dali landscape, with touches of de Chirico's cold industrialism, or unrelated objects circumscribed within the crisp interiors of Magritte, Paxton’s vividly colored oil paintings recapture the influential movement of the 1920's and 1930's. As with the Surrealists, he often paints from his dreams. However, the most prominent differences Paxton has with the movement stem from the philosophy behind his paintings.
While Surrealism attempts to resolve the dream world, or Freudian subconscious, with the waking world, Midrealism, according to Paxton, views yet another existence past the dream world. Midrealism, says Paxton, seeks the systematically important resolution between this other, metaphysical existence and the physical world, a resolution which occurs in the Midreal state. He further explains that the midreality does not exist the full time one is asleep, but only when one is within a deep dreaming phase. Paxton, who is also a published writer, plans to further clarify his position on Midrealism in his soon to be published book, A Step Beyond Madness: The First Manifesto of Midrealism.
With all its Surrealistic influences and California desert imagery, does Paxton's work reflect any Southern influences? "I do most of my works subconsciously, from dreams or from images outside. I will sometimes see something, and then start sketching. It is interesting that some of my new sketches are reflecting Southern imagery. Like a desert landscape with a catfish sticking up out of the ground or some fried chicken."
In Paxton's words, "everyone back home has been supportive" of his career choice. However, perhaps the most impressive support Paxton has received comes from the art world itself. Having displayed his works in at least seven solo shows, five in California, and 12 group shows including the 1995 and 1996 New York Art Expo, Paxton's career is accelerating at a phenomenal pace. Rather than resisting the pressures of this success, Paxton embraces them as a contributing Factor in his discovery of Midrealism.
"I can't help asking, ‘How did this happen?’. I was only 24 the first time I displayed at the New York Art Expo, something I didn't think would happen for years," explains Paxton enthusiastically. "People are then interested in you. And you have to keep working, keep producing. It forces you to stick with a style."
Paxton's paintings will be on display at the Holland Smith Gallery on Jefferson Street from June 17 through August 2. Works by Robert Cox, another artist raised in Athens, may also be viewed during those dates.
