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especially as it relates to being a feminist? Is there even a relationship when there’s a miscommunication between the two of us?

Olugbala: It really brings a different level of accountability — and I really appreciate, I think, what we’re trying to do. On being in an open relationship: Olugbala: Just because we’re open doesn’t mean, like, there’s a lot of other people. So we don’t have to really balance too many things. It’s mostly me (laughing), so I don’t know. It just works.

Rodriguez: It’s actually all you (laughing).

Olugbala: It’s me, it’s me. Rodriguez: But so much of it comes with its own separate form of activism, in a way. Of unlearning and relearning what it means to be in relation with a person, and wanting the best for them and their happiness — and doing away with toxic masculinity and traditional male-female roles and what that looks like.

Olugbala: It puts, like, really extra work on me to be honest and open, communicating about things that I’m engaging in. There’s an accountability, here, that really means everything to me.

The author Eric Maisel once said: “Love is the spirit that motivates the artist’s journey.” Do you agree?

Olugbala: I think love is everything. ... I’m alive, so I make art, and I’m alive because of two people who were in love. ... But I don’t know, of course. That’s like saying math is under everything. And love. And air. And gravity. I don’t know. What do you think?

Rodriguez: I can’t stop picturing a car and just really thinking about what does it mean to be committed to love? To be committed to being in that driver’s seat? And to really trust love — and showing up to say, “I’m in the driver’s seat. I can control the gas and push it and go 100 percent to get us to where we need to be.”