As a bookish fan of historical fiction, an interview with the author of the trusted eye was a fan moment for me personally. The Trusted Eye is the story of Claudia’s mother, her adventures as a fearless art advocate during world war II. It is a coffee table book that contains pictures of artworks and paintings that reveal about her mother, Virginia’s actions.
Morning Lazziness considers it an honor to bring to you an interview session with Claudia Chidester, author of Trusted Eye: Post–World War II Adventures of a Fearless Art Advocate.
“I prefer to do some journaling in the poetry format to make it interesting in the morning, and then read some fictional books, magazines, etc. My favorite genre is biography history; I read comedy books of Bill Bryson, Carl Hiaasen that make me laugh out loud” – Claudia.
The synopsis
The book is a snapshot of the different arcs of Virginia’s life, starting from the very beginning under her mother how she was molded into a bold woman with a sense of fearlessness. Virginia was born in 1915, the United States, into a middle-class family of artists, became a girl scout, taught swimming, and went to art school under her grandfather’s tutelage. Then she got married to a man in stone gray who was in the war.
“My mother was an avid letter writer and a photographer; she wrote letters to her mom almost every day about the things happening around”- Claudia.
Virginia was in Germany during world war II with her husband, who was in the army; utilizing her connections in the armed forces, she had a car to travel, food, gasoline, cigarettes, and then she founded a collector that really did help the artists in the south of Germany.
She would also buy the art, and that encouraged them to keep going. She has lived in Mexico with her husband for the last 25 years.
“This book has an authenticity; it’s her voice but an interesting one that fought against her mother, armed forces, quite frank in her sayings”- Claudia.
How I came across this notion
“After my parent’s demise, I received a couple of plastic bags of letters, diaries, and large photo albums. It was so rich; I hired a few activists to put them all together. After seeing one of her paintings, I felt that there was a story that had to be told about who she was and what she did” – Claudia.
