TAMPA — For over 30 years, a Tampa artist has been creating Christmas-themed artwork that can be seen all over the world.
However, Larry Hersberger’s latest project may be his best yet, because he’s teaming up with his wife to put Tampa Bay families into their own children’s storybook set to poetry.
Reading the Night Before Christmas is a tradition for many families, but Larry and Ela Hersberger thought — what if it were your own children or grandchildren on the pages of the book, telling Santa what’s on their wish list.
“Creating artwork and joyous storybooks for families, family heirlooms, for generations and their families, that ties their families tighter tougher,” said Larry.
It’s so much more than a photo with Santa, it’s a live performance, where families interact with Old St. Nick for about an hour. They call it Masterpiece Christmas.
“World-class magical experience that the kids will love and the parents will love and the grandparents will love, there will be tears and laughter,” said Larry. “The goal is to capture the wonder of children in iconic Santa moments with matching expressions in a sequence of images that we can then write and set to poetry.”
Every experience and every story is tailored to that specific family.
“We had a little boy that really loved fishing and we incorporated that in the session and he was holding the fishing rod, it was a magical fishing rod, and then the magic was coming out of the fishing rod,” said Ela.
Larry and Ela have the tools and talent to turn each photo into digital paintings, adding little details like magic dust. It’s more than just a children’s book; it’s a part of family history.
“How would it feel when this little boy is a grandfather and he reads this book to his grandchildren and says, ‘hey that was me when I was your age,’” said Ela referring to the little boy on the cover of one of their recent books.
“And on the back of the book we love to put the lineage of the family, who commissioned the book, for whom, the name of the children, their ages,” said Larry.
If the family wants to take the magic one step further, Larry can turn their favorite page into a large-scale digital painting or even an oil painting to hang in their home.
“Be prepared to be blown away because you are going to feel your inner child, that I guarantee you,” said Larry.
Larry and Ela are offering one more weekend of magical Santa sessions this weekend in Carrollwood. For more information on Masterpiece Christmas, go to www.masterpiecechristmas.com or call 813-613-1747.
