Born November 13, 1943 in Spokane, Washington, Roberg says "As a child I wanted to be a priest. Later I wanted to be the Pope. By the eighth grade I wanted to be a Congressman; later I decided to be President. But somewhere in high school I fell under the spell of poetry." Roberg left his childhood idealism behind when he came of age during the turbulence of Vietnam. "I found no hope," he says, "for the Catholic Church in which I was baptized or the country of my birth...I joined the Peace Corps and was sent to Peru to form 4-H Clubs. Returning to the States was like slamming into a brick wall in the dark. I received a draft notice." But his stint in the army was brief: "I endured six or seven weeks of army life and deserted to Mexico." In Mexico, Roberg met his future wife, Monique Gaudreau, enjoying some rest and recreation after discharge from the Canadian navy. "Wherever the journey took us," Roberg relates (Tunisia in 1970, Israel in 1971, India in 1972 where he abandoned Buddhism and rediscovered Christianity), "I could always find a job teaching English."

Robert gave himself up to the army at Fort Hood, Texas. "I got forty days in the stockade and, thank the Lord, a general discharge." The Robergs moved to the small California town of Blythe, on the edge of the Anza Desert. Roberg clearly remembers the day in 1977 that gave him reason to hope once again: "I was in the desert praying. Around midnight I was lifted off the earth by a blinding light and there was Jesus. He said, 'Work for me!'"

Roberg was ordained a minister in the Mennonite Church, which sent him to Nashville in 1986 to found a congregation. Robert tried many traditional, and alternative, ways to get people to listen to his message. He tried street corner preaching, and street corner singing. No one listened. Sometimes he would dress in a brown, burlap robe and carry a staff. This generated some interest, but what seemed to really work was to set up an easel and paint. For two years he painted and prayed with people on many street corners. In 1990 Ghislain Vander Elst of Franklin Tennessee saw some of Robert’s paintings and offered to represent him to the Folk Art World. Robert had never intended to sell his paintings, but the Mennonites had decided to end the work in Nashville, so he needed funds for his family of seven. Vander Elst had immediate successes and since then, Robert’s sermons in paint have every year gained more admirers.

Roberg is not unique in the recent history of folk art. Howard Finster, William Blayney, Josephus Farmer and others have received similar divine directives. Roberg's paintings are on found materials, and are signed "Talent by YAHWEH." Found objects are often applied to the work to help the viewer focus on the message which is printed in bold letters on the surface. "My greatest fear is that I will start believing I'm an artist. I hear the voice of the Holy Spirit telling me to find my worth in Jesus."

The visual changes in folk art during the latter half of our century have been dramatic, and the definition of the field is evolving. The relationship between the self-taught artist and society will be constantly scrutinized, examined, and reexamined. We cannot expect that the art or the artists will remain the same. But there will always be visionaries among us expressing their social and religious concerns in available materials. Robert Roberg is an important new discovery. The artist, however, is wary of fame when he says: "Will success ruin Robert Roberg? Probably. After all, look what raging pride has done to me over and over."

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