Lucy Bear

I illustrated a children's book about the journey a stuffed bear took to get to a little girl named Lucy. The little girl is inspired and named after a strong young girl I had the honor meeting, at the time she was only 3 and in recovery from her cancer.

The story for this project:
"My life began when I was created in a factory where I was told my purpose was to make a kid happy. I was created in a dark room, underground, cold, thrown around. I was then tied down and shipped away, taken to a random store, where and sat for hours on a shelf. I was picked off the shelves by an older woman with thick glasses. I thought it couldn't be too bad. She took me for a car ride and where she then threw me away into a box where I lay surrounded by hundreds of others. I sat there in a box for days. Finally, I could see light. Only to be put in a large garbage bag and put in the back of a truck. Taken to some random room were all set up to have our picture taken, and there were hundreds of us possibly thousands. I was then picked out of a lineup by another woman. She blinded me with paper, then left me under a strongly smelling tree that jingled when someone simply walked past.

Then one morning the paper was ripped off with a single tear and there was light, so much light. The light surrounded a little gleaming face of joy staring at me, with shining young eyes. The eyes of a small kid would from that moment take me to every hospital visit they had to take. They would hold my hand and squeeze me tight when they needed to. My kid was sick, I hadn’t realized it at the time but I was donated. I seemed to make them as happy. My kid became my purpose within seconds."