Beginning with conceptual themes and abstract ideas and moving from there to intuitively sourced imagery, Brooklyn-based artist David B. Smith constructs soft, colorful sculptures that both relate to and resist the glitchy white noise of the omnipresent world. David’s cozy but also dizzying installations often become environments for live sound in real time, and he and Carly share an affinity for inviting audiences to use their voices. In this dialog about art, performance, and personal exploration, what Carly and David are ultimately exploring is journey design: the process of creating pathways for themselves and others to explore freedom, safety, expansion, and the knowledge inherent in our bodies.

Making good on our promise to continue honoring mothers this month, Carly sat down with Lita Albuquerque—who’s been making art of the body, earth, and universe since the 70s—and her dancer and choreographer daughter Jasmine Albuquerque. In a dialogue that moves from Malibu to Tunisia to the outer planets, and from everyday parenting to cosmology, culture, and conceptual art, the women touch on the micro and macro of expression, togetherness, and care—and the true art of honoring ourselves and each other (and in particular our children and mothers) for who we are.

This episode isn’t one of our usual Conversations, but the first of a series of what we call Reflections, in which we embrace the ever-present opportunity to find gratitude for all mothers—perfect and imperfect, absent and present, received and chosen, familial and spiritual, God Mothers and step mothers. Carly reflects on her own difficult but beautiful relationship as a daughter and as a mother; the wild love, the raw edges, the big, vulnerable truths. And then: A special Infinite Crescendo Microjourney crafted from Carly’s own lullaby for her girls layered with voices from the community, sharing from the heart. It’s a gift, in audio form, and it’s meant to guide you toward whatever it is you might like to affirm, expand, shift, or hold as your own experience with the mothers surrounding you and the mother within.