If you own any early paintings by Queens alumnus Paxton Mobley `92, you'd better hold on to them. After graduating with a degree in studio art and art history, Mobley moved to California and has embarked on a successful career as a professional artist.
After graduation, Mobley tried to find a museum job where he could use his art history degree, but ended up taking a job cubing styrofoam. However, he got his first art show in 1993, after selling some pieces that were on display in a San Francisco gallery, and success has followed. Recently, Mobley was able to leave his part-time job as a museum artifacts specialist for Monterey, Calif., and pursue his art full-time.
Mobley calls his genre Midrealism, or "middle reality," which is a different take on the surrealist style of artist Salvador Dali. He's even written a book on the philosophy of Midrealism entitled A Step Beyond Madness. Mobley's preferred medium is oil on canvas, though he also does prints, wood burnings and bronzes, among other things. His oil paintings, which are his representation of a dream world, are vividly colored and highly detailed. Currently, his paintings are selling for thousands of dollars, while prints are priced in the hundreds. He's also done several commissioned pieces. But he refuses to change his artistic style for commissioned pieces and has managed to remain in the fine art realm, never doing illustration or graphic design.
While Mobley's art might be considered a little "out there," he says he thinks of himself as a pretty normal guy - although he does admit to getting into character for his arts shows. His wife, Marne, paints his ear with blue latex (a blue ear is his trademark) before all of his shows, and he gets his friends to come to the shows in character also.
If you would like to find out more about Midrealism, purchase A Step Beyond Madness, or purchase one of Mobley's works, you can visit his web site at http://www.midreal.com or write to him at: Midrealism By Paxton, P.O. Box 222847 Carmel, California 93922.
