Martin Eaton – photo by Caleb Lee Adams
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Author and award-winning filmmaker Martin Eaton is featuring a solo exhibition March 11-13th in Prospect Heights, Brooklyn, that you shouldn’t miss. His riveting show explores a variety of topics about the state of our union as humanity: a lover’s knife fight during a high speed car chase, what defines a woman, male patriarchy constructs, a mother desperately trying to save her child from mental illness, as well as engaging extracts from his forthcoming illustrated coffee table book of 100 short stories, entitled, Tomorrow’s Vig.
Martin’s personal story, which encompasses growing up Black and LGBT in Minnesota (with less than 1% diversity) is equally compelling. He founded a design business at the ago of 21 that endured for decades and eventually grew into a multi-national agency, then he lost everything to the Great Recession and fell into a personal, albeit temporary, setback with substance abuse. He overcame that and pivoted into becoming an award-winning filmmaker in 2023. Much like the advice given in Rudyard Kipling’s poem “If,” Eaton lost everything, took it in stride, and began anew – stronger than ever. That is inspiring. That is tough. That requires an inordinate amount of drive, talent, creativity, and inspiration as well – all of which is literally on display in his creative exhibition, series, and forthcoming book. He should be a role model for anyone struggling creatively, financially, and/or personally at the moment. He demonstrates what is possible when you put your creative mind to success and manifesting a vision.
Eaton was recently interviewed by Minnesota Public Radio and The New York Times, and is definitely an artist to follow. We will probably all be saying someday that we heard of Martin Eaton before anyone else did (or seeing him at the awards shows). His interplay between whimsy and humor, reality, social consciousness, and life’s deeper questions give us so much to ponder and to discuss with each other, so take a friend or loved one to this show and grab some drinks after to delve into what you saw in-depth.
Eaton infuses his stories with other talented, global creators as a fusion of visual and linguistic artistry. His inspiration stems from “the multitude of struggles we face, searching for happiness in the modern world.” His stories examine aspects of modern life, such as anger, technology and isolation, urban existence, melancholy, pockets of optimism, and humor. In short: all of what makes us human in this era of artificial intelligence and shallow social media posts.
Eaton’s childhood was rife with comic books, poetry, and cartoon collections to spark the imagination and the visual realm, all of which is evident in his exhibition and pilot. He’s adept at layering nuances and providing fresh twists.
Proving that Eaton knows how to mine gold from setbacks, he viewed the 2020 pandemic as an opportunity to reinvent his work, and he began work on a pilot titled “Mott & Spy, which has been viewed more than 50,000 times to date.
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His indie pilot for MOTT & SPY, a refreshing drama-comedy about freshmen journalists who fight their corrupt for-profit university can be found HERE. This series melds satirical comedy about our social mores with real-life issues, and the characters are both endearing and memorable.
This Mott & Spy pilot is a 50-minute delve into a fictitious, upscale ivy league school where four diverse students resurrect a forgotten civil rights newspaper to fight their current corrupt, for-profit university as journalists. Truly a series for our time!
The show’s production quality is top-notch, which makes a difference when devoting an hour of your time to a show, and it features more than 40 different locations, so it flows nicely. The storyline is satisfying, and weightier issues are offset with moments of satirical hilarity. This is the year to discuss and parse out issues of class disparity, power inequity, corruption at every level of society, sexuality on campus and other issues deeply affecting our forthcoming generation.
Kudos to Martin Eaton for writing, producing, and directing this professional, entertaining pilot – and for not being afraid to openly grapple with our larger societal issues in a manner that thoroughly entertains us.
Follow + connect with Martin Eaton here:
Instagram: @tomorrowsvig
YouTube: @mott-and-spy
Email: info@corkpublishing.nyc
