At first glance, their backyard looks like that of any country home - an expanse of land fenced by strapping trees, vibrant flowers and wandering wildlife. But as our evening's interview progresses, I realize this is more than any old backyard up the road in Danby: This is two artists' backyard filled with remnants of almost 30 years worth of hard work. I see that in one corner, a pile of snow-capped plaster rocks nearly touches the leaves of the trees that hang above it. Right below us, at the deck's entrance, gigantic sculpted heads are scattered across the grass. I recognize these rocks from a groundbreaking Handwerker installation the artists compiled for the gallery's opening; the heads are from their interactive installation "Assembly Line," shown at the Walker Art Center-New Music America in Minneapolis.
      Media artists Raymond Ghirardo and Megan Roberts have collaborated on art for over 30 years, beginning almost 20 years after meeting each other in third grade. Over the past three decades, their cutting-edge installation art has been displayed and admired across the country and the world; they've been artists-in-residence at places as close as Yaddo in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., and the MacDowell Colony in New Hampshire and as far as the Center for Contemporary Art in Prague and Fundacion Valparaiso in Spain. Their art has been displayed most recently at the Maselnice Gallery in the Czech Republic, the Kimura Gallery in Anchorage and the Consolidated Works in Seattle.
      When asked what they find most challenging about their work, they both laugh and almost succinctly respond with "describing it!" However, Ghirardo did later perfectly sum it up in four words: "3-D, time-based, experiential and theatrical."
      Ghirardo and Roberts' work consists of installations that exploit the use of sculpture and video in a non-traditional way. Their sculptural video and sound installation works often involve a range of technical elements like video projection with and upon objects, movement-triggered images and sounds, interactive mechanical constructions, digital animation and sound and video manipulation.
      "It's more like theater," Roberts says, "we set it up and people come to watch it. This is installation art...it's like theater, and it's time-based, only unlike theater, you can stay as long as you want or leave when you want."
      Ghirardo and Roberts find working together much more fun and successful. "Our skills complement each other but they also overlap to such a great degree," says Ghirardo. "The hardest part now is that we don't really know whose idea is what."
      Both are professors at Ithaca College, Ghirardo teaching art and Roberts in the television-radio department. When the two return home from a school's long day, their focus shifts from teaching to creating; they move from focusing on their students to focusing on their own art and the creations, ideas, outcomes and experiences that will come next.
      This past May, Ghirardo and Roberts were chosen out of over 4,000 applicants to receive a prestigious artist fellowship from the New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA). This grant will help them focus on their artwork, experiment with new materials and techniques and most importantly, provide them with time. Because time - not having enough - is the artists' second response to the challenge of their work.
      And many artists agree. Painter and fellowship recipient James Sheehan says, "I will spend the money buying myself time - for one...I'm so much looking forward to this because I really, honestly feel I'm on the cusp of a really great body of work that needs a series of uninterrupted days in the studio."
      The NYFA fellowship also provides artists with the money needed to advance their work. "If you're hard pressed for money, you can't take chances. This [grant] lets us take chances," says Roberts. "This is how you discover things that are new. You don't have to do tried and true old things - you can do something new."
      NYFA, the nation's largest provider of funding, information and services to individual artists, has awarded this grant to 117 New York artists consisting of architects, painters, photographers, choreographers, fiction writers, screenwriters, playwrights and video artists. The grants are awarded on a yearly basis, and since 1985 over 3,000 New York artists have received fellowships; past recipients include Spike Lee and artist Caroll Dunham.
      This NYFA artist fellowship is the third Ghirardo and Roberts have received in three decades, and they are grateful for the faith and artistic license they are given. "What makes it just so great is that we're trusted to do the right thing," says Roberts. "And I trust us to do the right thing."
      The NYFA fellowship includes a public service component, which requires recipients to give some form of their art back to New York through events such as concerts, lectures, exhibits or workshops. Ghirardo and Roberts find this aspect of the fellowship extremely important and plan to set up an entire installation for students at the New York State Summer School for the Media Arts at Ithaca College this week.
      "They [NYFA] have consistently supported us and encouraged our art," says Ghirardo. "They want to help the greater community," says Roberts, "and the level of self-sacrifice is just incredible. They work really hard there."
      Ghirardo and Roberts are selfless when it comes to describing themselves and their work and feel nothing but honored that they've been awarded the NYFA fellowship. They urge others, especially in areas outside of New York City where knowledge of grants and fellowships aren't as prominent, to pursue funding and support.
      "It's great that someone from Tompkins County received this," expresses Roberts. "There's a lot of talent in this area and more should apply for grants and fellowships."