Elena Kucharik is a children's illustrator from the U.S., known for her artwork across the entire line of Care Bears

Care Bears

The Care Bears are characters created by American Greetings in 1981 for use on greeting cards. The original artwork for the cards was painted by artist Elena Kucharik. In 1983, Kenner turned the Care Bears into plush teddy bears...

 items from the 1980s. She was co-creator of that franchise along with Linda Denham

Linda Denham

Linda B. Denham is the co-creator of the Care Bears franchise along with Elena Kucharik, the main artist for the toys in the 1980s. During that decade, Denham served as Director and Vice President of Marketing for the Kenner toy company; in 1985, she was involved in television commercials for its...

. Kucharik is also an illustrator

Illustrator

An Illustrator is a narrative artist who specializes in enhancing writing by providing a visual representation that corresponds to the content of the associated text...

 of the Christian

Christian

A Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as recorded in the Canonical gospels and the letters of the New Testament...

 children's book series Little Blessings published by Tyndale House

Tyndale House

Tyndale House is a publisher founded in 1962 by Kenneth N. Taylor, in order to publish his paraphrase of the Epistles, which he had composed while commuting to work at Moody Press in Chicago. The book appeared under the title Living Letters, and received a television endorsement from Billy Graham...

.

Kucharik was born in Cleveland, Ohio

Ohio

Ohio is a Midwestern state in the United States. The 34th largest state by area in the U.S.,it is the 7th‑most populous with over 11.5 million residents, containing several major American cities and seven metropolitan areas with populations of 500,000 or more.The state's capital is Columbus...

 and received a Bachelor Degree of Fine Arts from Kent State University.

Her Care Bears illustrations were the most detailed and best quality of all the illustrators who have worked on the franchise. As the lead Care Bears illustrator, Elena worked for American Greetings Corporation, who owns the trademark and her original art.

External links

• Elena's Custom Paintings