From a very young age Paxton has based his artwork and writing on dreams and the subconscious mind. Because of this, he considered himself a Surrealist for much of his life until many new thoughts initiated him to formulate a new artistic belief system. This new art genre, coined Midrealism, was first conceptualized through a very subconscious and theoretical writing Paxton began working on in May of 1993. This writing, later termed Tenth Dimensional Theology, bases itself on the idea that our existence revolves around a wheel of ten dimensions. Each dimension and its content is brought into existence as the shadow of its higher dimension. A single being existing within our 3-dimensional world has a higher parent soul living within the forth dimension, while it (the three dimensional being) cast its own shadow into the second dimension creating its child soul. This interconnected family of souls extends through the ten dimensions and moves as a single unit during death and rebirth from one dimension to the next.

As a being exists within a single dimension, it lives its life through a constant loop of realities. This reality loop is made up of an outer physical reality, an inner metaphysical reality and a middle transitional reality. The middle reality or dream world is created by the overlapping of the outer and inner realities, creating a transition point between these two opposing existences.

The Midreality or dream world is made up of thoughts, memories and experiences from both the outer and inner realities creating an intuitively ordered existence for the purpose of insuring a smooth transition from one realm to the other.

Paxton states that as a being goes to sleep within our three dimensional world, it begins its transfer from the outer physical reality into the Midreality or dream world. This transfer is complete when the being experiences REM (rapid eye movement), the stage of sleep in which dreams occur. The being will stay within the Midreality for a short period until it transfers into the inner metaphysical reality or NREM (non rapid eye movement). This stage of sleep is characteristic of very little brain activity giving rise to the idea that it is void of dreams. The 3- dimensional being will transfer from the inner reality to the Midreality four or five times a night before completing its final transfer back into the outer physical world.

Paxton's completion of Tenth Dimensional Theology and most importantly his theory on how a being lives its life through a constant loop of realities within each dimensional world gave rise to a troubling question. How could he call himself a Surrealist when his beliefs conflicted with those that made up the foundation of the 1920's artistic movement? Andre' Breton, the notable founder and speaker of the Surrealist movement wrote in his first manifesto of Surrealism, "I believe in the future resolution of these two states, dream and reality, which are seemingly so contradictory into a kind of absolute reality, a surreality (15)". Where as Breton states that a Surrealist searches for a resolution between the waking world and the dream world, a Midrealist believes that the dream world is the formed resolution between the physical reality and an opposing spiritual or metaphysical existence.

Midrealism believes the dream world to be made up of residue from both the physical and metaphysical realities. The mind takes this residue and randomly organizes it into an intuitively ordered realm. Because it is made up of both the physical and metaphysical worlds it is considered the most holistic state of existence a being can have within our 3-dimensional world.

It is the belief of Midrealism that dreams should not be given broad explanation. A dream is constructed with building blocks from both the physical and metaphysical world. Therefore to try and explain or decode a dream while only existing within the physical world would result in an incomplete interpretation. The same goes for Midrealistic art work since it is based on dreams and the subconscious (believing the subconscious to be strongly attached to the dream world).

Because Midrealistic works of art are based on the dream world they are characteristic of an intuitive, random organization with evidence of contradictions ranging from opposing time periods to contrasting imagery. At most, works of art produced from a Midrealistic perspective should be given a description similar to a person waking up and describing one of his or her dreams to a friend. Not trying to figure out what it means but rather recounting its puzzling imagery or story line. One exception does exist for creating works of art that hold an explainable or symbolic meaning and that is when a work is produced as a tool to promote the beliefs of Midrealism to the general public. One of the main purposes of Midrealism is to bring a better awareness to both the artist and the viewer of the importance of the dream world as a transitional reality and our potential to unlock its vast collection of images, memories and experiences many never knew existed. Because of this, Midrealism is associated with an absence of mind altering drugs which might distort the natural way we perceive our transition from one reality to the next. By becoming more aware of our dreams and the importance they play in creating a balanced and full existence within our 3-dimensional world, we will learn to step beyond the ritualistic boundaries society has placed on our lives.

Midrealism prods us to strengthen our understanding of the natural realities we experience past our physical existence and express through art the imaginative and creative potential collected within the mixing bowl of these realities. With this we shall never stop ascending to higher levels of knowledge and understanding.

© Paxton 1996