Karrie first traveled to South Africa in 2012 to attend a residency at The Bag Factory in Johannesburg. This was her first introduction to the country and opened her eyes to the beauty of the country but also to the complexity of the challenges faced by all who inhabit the region.

In the Spring of 2015, Karrie returned to Africa with a larger objective. She formalized her relationship with the organization 12Hours to raise funds for RhinoArt. Through their efforts, Karrie and Charles were able to fund the RhinoArt project in 8 rural community schools. They participated in the first of the programs, presenting the project along with a Zulu educator, and the program founder to 1400 students in Mtubatuba. Despite living within miles of the rhinos less than 5% of the students had ever seen a living rhino.

In addition to the school program, Karrie and Charles partnered with 12hours to ride in the JoBerg2C, a 9 day, 900 km mountain bike stage race from Johannesburg, through the Drakensberg, to the Indian Ocean. Through our participation in the race, 12hours was one of the Old Mutual official event charities providing additional funding and exposure for 12hours conservation programs. Our adventures are chronicled on our website www.3ringcircus.us

Over the course of our travels, RhinoArt arranged for Karrie and Charles to meet with an anti poaching ranger. Project Thorn and Hornucopia are results of that meeting. Additionally, they visited a total of 5 game reserves (iMfolozi, Tembe, Kruger, Sabi and Timbavati).

Karrie spent an additional month at the Nirox Foundation working on a piece titled: man.I.cure. The work is about the illegal trade of and the use of rhino horn in Southeast Asia for “medicinal purposes”. There is an ongoing cancer epidemic in Vietnam due to chemical contamination dating back to the use of Agent Orange during the Vietnam/American conflict and the continued extensive use of chemicals in agriculture.

In recent years the market pressure for rhino horn has dramatically increased because of the wrongly held believed that rhino horn cures cancer, impotence and hangovers. In reality, the keratin of the rhino horn is nearly genetically identical to that of your fingernails. The work also references the exploitation of Vietnamese refugees in the nail salon industry as reported by the www.bbc.com, rhino horn as an investment and a status symbol, the Chinese tea drinking customs, and the religious references of the red string. man.I.cure is in the permanent collection of the Nirox Foundation.