Born in 1951 in Boulder, Colorado, Roberts received her B.A. (Special Distinction) from the University of New Mexico in 1973. During her studies 1971 to 1972, she also attended Bellas Artes De Mexico, San Miguel de Allende, Mexico and University of New Mexico at Quito, Ecuador. In 1981 she received her Masters in Fine Arts from Arizona State University. From 1983 to 1991, Roberts lived on the Zuni reservation in western New Mexico.

Roberts has twice received an award from National Endowment for the Arts for Photography in 1986 and 1988. Her work is in numerous collections including: Art Institute of Chicago, Museum of Photographic Art, San Diego, University of Arizona, Museum of Art, Tucson, Phoenix Museum of Art, University Art Museum, UNM, Center for Creative Photography, Tucson, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Museum of Fine Arts, Santa Fe, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Albuquerque Museum of Art, and Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago.

In Roberts’ work, the meeting of a painted image over a photograph creates an incredible vibration that provokes mysterious, sometimes troubling emotions in the viewer’s subconscious and in their dreamlike quality transport us into another realm.