Helen Martins Helen Martins was born in December 1897 and grew up in Nieu-Bethesda as the youngest of six children. She obtained a teachers diploma in nearby Graaff-Reinet and, around that time, married Johannes Pienaar, a teacher, dramatist and in later years a politician. The marriage did not last long and knowledge about her activities in the years that followed is sketchy and often contradictory. What we do know is that that she certainly had a passion. She certainly spent time in the Transvaal (now Gauteng), Cape Town and Port Elizabeth. Helen returned to Nieu-Bethesda in the nineteen-thirties to care for her elderly parents. Her mother, who had long been an elder,slickly woman, passed away in 1941. 'Oom Piet' Martins died in 1945, and Helen Martins was left alone, with few prospects, in this remote Karoo village. It was some time after this, somewhere in her late forties or early fifties, that 'Miss Helen', as she became known, was to begin to transform her surroundings. It is certain that Miss Helen sought praise and attention through her work but as time progressed, and rumors and suspicion grew within the village, she became increasingly anti social. Miss Helen was notorious for not taking care of herself and as time, arthritis, and the nature of her undertaking took its toll on her physique, she became increasingly shy of her appearance and took great pains to avoid seeing people in the street. The friends that she had, however, describe her as an intensely passionate person who became particularly animated and excited when discussing the latest ideas for her beloved creation. She had always said that she had a great pain within her to the few friends that she had and always continued to go on how she was in 'The Darkness'. In order to pursue her vision, Miss Helen had successfully managed to endure great physical and emotional hardship. That is, until her eyesight began to fail her. On a cold winters' morning in 1976, at the age of seventy-eight, Helen Martins,took her own life by swallowing caustic soda. It was her wish that her creation be preserved as a museum. And, her desire to be recognised as an artist is magnificently realised in the attention accorded to the Owl House and the fact that her artwork, once an object of derision and embarrassment, has become the single most important asset of the village of Nieu-Bethesda.
