Kentucky Storyteller brings spirited tales to life
During the ten years Thomas spent as a Shaker Singer at Pleasant Hill, Kentucky, he kept a journal of all the strange happenings told to him by the people who worked at the 200 year old village. Some of his own odd experiences are also included his book of Shaker Ghost Stories. Photos submitted.
Who are you going to call, when you need a spirited story teller?
From Ghost Stories, Fairy Tales, Silly Stories and Song, to Hispanic Stories and Native American Tales, Thomas Freeze is just a phone call away.
Freese has been a Kentucky storyteller for over 20 years and has been invited to tell stories in schools, libraries, and community centers for adults and children all over Kentucky and a few other countries as well.
“I choose stories that intrigue; that teach life lessons and stimulate participation and dialogue,’’ Freese said. “Some of the stories I tell are my own, some are tales others have shared with me. In my storytelling programs I play the guitar, harmonica and other instruments and I often include stories from diverse cultures,” Freese said.
Not only does he tell engaging stories, but he is also a talented artist, author, musician and an Art Therapist.
Freese said, “I’m mostly a self-taught artist but my mother and my siblings are also artistic and so is my son. Art is in my blood and is my therapy. I love to take something like an old piece of wood and crave it into folk art that can be worn as a necklace or earrings or to turn a twisted piece of wood into whimsical little wands.”
Freese is also an art therapist and holds a BA in psychology and a masters degree in expressive therapies and has worked in Kentucky schools since 1993 where he has taught visual arts and crafts, literary arts and storytelling.
Thomas Lee Freese has studied art at the McNay Art Institute, The Southwest Craft Center, The University of New Mexico and The University of Louisville.
He has created a line of wooden folk art jewelry which includes Southwest and Celtic designs.
He taught as an Artist-in-Residence for many years through the Kentucky Art’s Council’s Arts Education program.
Some of the programs he uses in art therapy include a variety of visual arts such as Origami, Folk Art, Retablos, paper engineering, tessellations, rubber stamp carving and creating wooden jewelry.
“I worked all around Kentucky as a teaching artist with the Kentucky Arts Council and I often saw that children really needed to do art to help them express feelings and cope with life challenges. I had seen an art therapist working with kids in the 1970s when I was a college intern at the San Antonio Childrens Center, so I had a positive impression of that career. So I took the prerequisites and did all the Master’s program work to get my degree in 2003. I worked in several Louisville Catholic schools for four years before I decided to return to being a self-employed artist, a teaching artist, storyteller and author,” Freese explained.
Freese has been invited to to tell stories as far away as Alaska and Argentina and dreams of someday visiting other countries as a storyteller.
He first tried his hand at writing books when he was in the seventh grade but it wasn’t until his sophomore year in high school that Freese learned to hone his writing skills.
By the end of the 1990s Freese started writing books and now has about a dozen completed titles under his belt, both fiction and non-fiction.
He has written more than 120 articles for Lexington’s Chevy Chaser and Southsider Magazines in the past.
His published works include, Shaker Ghost Stories from Pleasant Hill, Kentucky, Fog Swirler, Strange and Wonderful Things: A Collection of Ghost Stories with Special Appearances by Witches and Other Bizarre Creatures, Haunted Battlefields of the South, Ghosts, Spirits and Angels: True Tales from Kentucky and Beyond and a children’s book titled Halloween Sleepwalker.
For a “story that comes to life” for your next classroom or a community event, or to order one of his books or some of his hand-crafted jewelry pieces, you can contact Thomas Lee Freese at (502) 439-7720 or visit his website at http://www.thomaslfreese.com
Moral lessons, life skills, problem solving, humor and music are all a part of the stories told by Thomas Freese.
After four hours of carving these spoons from a piece of Holly log, Thomas hand-sketched the interlocking shapes, then spent several more hours to accentuate the intricate design with a wood burner. Each bead in the necklace has a story behind the type of wood used. The twisted bead, Thomas carved from a piece of root from a persimmon tree. He learned from his Vietnamese neighbor that persimmon was used to treat diabetes. One of the beads is a piece of very rare pink ivory. Photos by Kym King.
One of Thomas’ favorite art mediums is working with natural elements like the limbs he used to carve these little wands from a Kentucky Cherry and Hedge Apple tree. His students enjoy listening to the folk lore associated with the different types of wood.
