I need a press secretary.

For the past year or so, I have thought the so-called news to be "he said-she said," feelings and opinions, not newsworthy events. Today I got caught up in it.

This is the week of the big art show our organization does every April. The show is open to the public only three days, but oh the preparation that goes into it!

Yesterday the art came in. One of the artists who dropped off work had to be called later to be told that (only) three of her pieces (out of thirteen) were not suitable for the show. The paintings were nicely executed, but naked human beings in their entirety just don't fly for a family/kid friendly event. She should have known. The entire team of artists working there agreed they were inappropriate. On the phone when talking to the show chair and to me, she was clearly mad and let us backward people who didn't understand true art have it! A little later when she came to pick up her pieces, she created a scene. On the way out the door she loudly proclaimed she was going to the local paper, and that we had not heard the last of it. She was picking a fight!

And that is what she did. Today I received a call from a reporter who, based on the one voice he had heard, asked many pointed questions that I answered the best I could. He quickly wrote an article that went online, and tomorrow it will be in the paper.

I tried to be nice about the whole situation to both the dissident artist and the reporter. I didn't want to be insulting or arrogant even though my nursing career did give me plenty of insight into people who push limits and act out.

It is not just the guidelines we need to go by or the consideration of the public with whom we have built a good relationship, but we also must respect the policies of the community arts building we rent for the show. They did not want those pieces either. Our policies say we can pull a piece at any time. It is an out for such a situation.

Maybe since it is a titillating subject, the story will be considered interesting, but it seems to me just another empty "he said-she said" spiel instigated by someone who wants her way and who disregards the rights and decisions of others. And I, as the president, had to speak up in support of my organization.