Making Art (Jesse Brass) and Bo Bartlett just released a short film worth checking out.

American artist Andrew Wyeth secretly made over 240 drawings and paintings of one model between 1971 and 1985. The secret was kept even from his wife. When the story broke, it was a national sensation gracing the covers of Time and Newsweek. The model was Helga Testorf.

This is the story told for the first time by Helga.

“Helga Testorf, a middle-aged woman in pigtails who was Mr. Wyeth’s neighbor in rural Pennsylvania, has the curious distinction of being the last person to be made famous by a painting.”

-James Gardner, Art Critic

“He was at a point in his career where he had to produce, produce … and along came this free spirit, running over the hills … he thought he was chasing himself, because that’s what he did as a boy, running over the hills. He was always painting himself in me.”

- Helga Testorf

Watch more from Making Art at makingarfilms.com