Unveiling Secrets: Karen Palmer’s Shocking Journey Behind She’s Under Here
LL: What I felt from you, from this book, is your lifelong desire to create, to make art even in the midst of a very difficult situation. In 1989, I turned to architecture as a way to soothe the corners of my mother’s state of mind by drawing floor plans. I think architecture — compartmentalizing — saved my life. Would you say the same for yourself? That creating — writing, forgery — saved you?
KP: I’m so glad you found respite in architecture. With my whole heart, I believe that art can save us. The forgery I perpetrated did that quite literally. I’d worked for years as a graphic artist, and time in the studio with pencils and paints and lines of type was a joy. So there was satisfaction in using those skills to create a new life, to invent a different story. From a young age, books were heaven to me, words on a page entry to a magic kingdom. After we ran, I longed to create my own. So I wrote two novels as far from my own experience as could be. With the memoir, I found myself in different territory. What I wanted most from that book was to make art from pain.
