Ms. Good, also a writer, said she agreed that the terror alerts were "all diversionary."

"We sensed that there is integration," Ms. Good said in an interview.

"The artist will be like a genie drawing on the building," Ms. Good said.

Ms. Good never considered a meal as a means to making an impression.

Ms. Good believes, however, that the books have succeeded at least in part because people connect to them emotionally.

The bidding for workers at the low end gave Ms. Good a leg up on the wage scale.

"I decided that standing over a copy machine, you are not learning anything," Ms. Good said.

Ms. Good, an artist, will work with painters on scenes looking out of the museum's windows onto the courtyard and the green.

Ms. Good did not purse the matter.

At first, Ms. Good said, she was ordered to leave immediately.