Introducing: Cubby-Hole Designs!

When artist Linda Peckford posted on face book that the work of hers (top)had been just purchased by John Crosbie, Lieutenant Governor of Newfoundland, she was the only one surprised.  Linda is an incredibly talented artist with a career as vibrant and brilliant as the works she creates.  As the founder and an accredited instructor with the Rug Hooking Guild of Newfoundland and Labrador, she has been teaching the craft for nearly 15  years, reviving and revitalizing an important cultural art form that might well have been lost forever without her efforts.  For her work she was recognised as one of the first recipients of the Order of Newfoundland and Labrador for starting the guild which emphasizes preserving the province's culture and heritage through this art medium.

Linda is a graduate of Memorial University of Newfoundland and her work has received several honors and awards.  Her goal is to start an art school that will change the face of art making in Newfoundland and Labrador.

On a personal note, I have known Linda since I was ten  years old and in grade 4.  The first day of school, Miss White, as she was then, the prettiest teacher I had ever seen walked into our class.  She was as talented as she was pretty and from day one, we all blossomed under her tutelage.  She was, by far, the most influential teacher this young student had.  She drew beautiful pictures of "dolls" and we girls loved them.  It started all of us drawing them and to this day I draw similar, though not as good, dolls for my girls who "dress" them in dresses and various other fashions.  I drew many many pictures that year and gave them to her.  In my senior year, she sent all of the pictures we had drawn her to our class!  She had kept them!  I remember one of mine said "I'm off to universary." It's also not surprising I had the biggest stack.   I also remember that I got in trouble in her class that year for talking.  Looking back on it, that was actually a good thing because I was painfully shy in school(yeah, I know, I recovered) and the fact that I was comfortable enough to talk meant I was at home in her care.  She also gave my cousin and I a bangle bracelet each!  What a treasure.

She only taught me one year, but it was probably the most important and transformative year of my life.  I won an award for language arts that year but that was minimised when, the next year Miss White sat next to me on the bus, and catching me glancing at her pretty earrings, she pulled them out of her ears and gave them to me.  I only have one of those earrings(see above) still but that might be a blessing with teen daughters who like to borrow my jewelry. 

The lessons that I learned from Linda went beyond math and English and the other subjects she taught so well.  I remember the day she told our class that Change Islands was the greatest place on earth and instilled in all of us a pride in where we came from and in ourselves because of it.  She taught me that the smallest, most insignificant act of kindness can have an impact in a persons life more than you may ever understand, the day she handed me those earrings, and she gave me someone to look up to as an example of a person who knows how to follow her dreams.  I am forever grateful.

Please take a moment to visit Linda's website by clicking the link Cubby-Hole Designs.  It's well worth your time.