Welcome to the fascinating world of Midrealism, an artistic belief system created by artist and writer Paxton Mobley as a tool to awaken and set in motion the natural creative forces that manifest themselves in dreams and the subconscious mind. While similar to the Surrealist movement of the 1920's in its use of dreams as inspiration, Midrealism steps beyond the boundaries of Surrealism to create a new and present perspective on the association of dreams and the art world.

Three brief and simple explanations of how Midrealism differs from the 1920's Surrealist movement are: 1) In the way Midrealism is based on a new theology created by the artist. 2) Midrealism's contradicting definition of dreams and how one reaches the dream world. 3) Midrealism's disassociation of mind-altering substances to enhance the creative process.

While André Breton, the notable founder and speaker of the Surrealist movement, disassociated himself and Surrealism from spiritualism, Midrealism is based on Tenth Dimensional Theology which believes that each and everyone of us cycle through both a physical and metaphysical reality throughout our lives. Tenth Dimensional Theology is based on a wheel of ten dimensions and covers the life, death, and birth of individuals in our three dimensional world and their relation to the wheel as a whole.

The general view of those that were involved in the Surrealist movement was to try and achieve through their art a resolution of the two opposing states of reality, being the wake world and the dream world. Midrealism takes this concept one step further by believing in the existence of a third metaphysical reality beyond dreams. This creates the view that a Midrealist will try and achieve through his art a resolution of the two opposing states of reality, being the wake world and the metaphysical world. Midrealism believes that the resolution point between the wake world and the metaphysical world is the dream world or middle reality. Therefore all Midreal works of art are inspired from, or connected to the dream world in some way.

While not all the Surrealists used mind-altering substances to enhance the creative process, there were no rules against its use and many members used them freely. Midrealism focuses on attaining its inspiration for its works of art through natural processes that explore the dream world, therefor disassociating itself from mind-altering substances. Because the dream world is such a random and unique reality, by tapping into it naturally you can achieve an uncontaminated and accurate representation of its imagery.

One of the main symbols of Midrealism is a blue ear. When Paxton was very young he would sometimes have scary dreams and to make it easier to try and fall asleep he imagined a doorway that he could create at anytime in the dream and would be able to escape to wherever he wanted to go. This door manifested itself as a blue ear. Paxton does not know exactly why his door was a blue ear but as a young boy it seemed to make perfect sense. So when Paxton created Midrealism the natural symbol to represent his new dream based belief system was the blue ear. The painting that Paxton first painted the blue ear in was "The Essence of Leather and Hide".

Paxton uses the blue ear in many ways: As a doorway to the dream world depicted in his works of art and shows, as a logo for Midrealism, but most of all he sees it as a symbol of protection as remembered for his childhood. In 1994 Paxton began painting his left ear blue for his opening receptions. Later he would dawn a mannequin's ear he had cut off and painted blue. Most recently he has created a blue latex ear that he is able to slip over his ear during his shows.

Another symbol used a lot in Paxton's work is the carrot. This symbol has a very simple explanation. While Paxton was beginning his career in San Francisco, CA in 1992 he found himself living the true life of a starving artist. Because of a lack of income the main thing you would find in the kitchen was cans of beans and bags of carrots. Paxton would sit at his easel and paint while drinking hot tea and eating carrots. It was inevitable that the carrots would find their way onto his canvases. The way they ended up being depicted in his paintings were growing upside-down out of his desert landscapes.

The last image that is used repeatedly in Paxton's work that might need an explanation is his stylized Moons. Paxton first created this moon in a painting back in 1993. He wanted to paint a moon that looked like a broken and gnawed piece of cheese. Over the years the moon has become more refined and now is seen as a distinguishing trademark. The moon can take on many colors and sizes in Paxton's work and can be used as a great composition tool for balancing the random images in his paintings.