Q: Who is Donna Dewberry? Tell us a bit about how what led you to painting and interior decorating?

A: I’m a mom with seven children and just wanted to pretty things up in the house but didn’t have the money. All along my passion has been to find an avenue and make things at home.

Q: What keeps you busy when you’re not taping episodes of One Stroke Painting with Donna Dewberry?

A: Teaching… I’ve been all across the world – Iceland, Germany, Holland, London and Japan. My husband and I try to help people become good teachers and show them how to teach art. It’s really worked out with public television stations in the United States. On our Web site, there’s a list of all the people who have been certified in my teaching programs.

Q: Do you find a changing landscape in the art world as you travel the world?

A: Well, in the past it’s always been more women than men but we’ve found that with the introduction of the public television series we’ve had classes that are entirely made up of men. When I was visiting the station in Iowa, we had couples coming down to the station to meet me in person – not just women but their husbands too!

We also found, in a survey we did about seven years ago, 91% of the public said they would love to learn how to paint but only 40% had say they would ever even try it. Our goal has been to get those other 60%.

Q: What’s life been like since your program hit public television?

In Orlando, my kids are a bit sick of seeing my face on the local stations for the entire weekend. Sometimes stations will do marathon pledge events with my show and we have to laugh! I’ve been stopped in airports all over the country (Donna travels about 260 days per year)… you know I’ve been doing TV for ages and I’ve never seen a reaction by people like this, until public television. So many people stopping to ask me –”Would you be Ms. Donna Dewberry?”

I have this incredible passion and mission to teach people. It’s amazing (working with public television) I’m doing something to help people who may not have the money to pay for cable television – I love it, it’s incredible because that’s the same situation that I was once in. This feeling of satisfaction is what I’ve always dreamed of doing.