WHO ARE WE?

I, Ananth Das, am the vessel of ALIEN DAYDREAMS™. ALIEN DAYDREAMS™ is essentially an individual art collective, housed in my physical body. 

So, why ALIEN DAYDREAMS™? Well, since as early as I can remember, I’ve never felt like I’ve “fit in” properly—not just in social groups, but on a broader scale, like in society. I always used to love Lilo and Stitch because I felt like I could really relate to Stitch—an alien thrown into this world one day without being built for it-and the only person I could ever really be my full self around was my sister (or my Lilo). Similarly to Stitch, I could only function highly in this world by masking all the other parts of myself that were too “alien,” or “weird,” or “improper.” Two years ago, when I found myself again after being lost in this masked version of myself living under the whim of others & society, my real essence began to reveal itself in the artwork that I started to produce.

I noticed how alive I felt, how when I created I felt closer to my true being than I ever had been before. So, I began to create more and more profusely—largely through paintings, drawings, and writings. The more I created, the more different aspects of myself began to make sense to me. I saw myself as an alien (or a group of aliens that have found each other gradually over the course of my life). I may not have been built for this world, but I am here nonetheless! And while I am here, I will create & connect, because these are the things that ring truest to my essence.

“DAYDREAMS” comes from my creative process—any work that I’ve created has usually been conceived/planned through the countless number of daydreams in which I create, transform, and manipulate various mediums and concepts to implement into a piece later. While the conventional world will call this a symptom of my ADHD, I see it as a window—no, a portal—into an infinite expanse of worlds, galaxies, and universes throughout the cosmos.

So, who are the aliens? Well, as I went about navigating life on this planet, I found elements of myself that simply did not have a place in this world. Consequently, I never felt like I “belonged” anywhere–every public version of myself felt like a painfully diluted version of who I really was. Gradually, the elements that never belonged developed into full beings.

MADCAP was the first to emerge, and his art came from a place of anger. It was bad enough being marooned on this strange planet, and it certainly didn’t help that the humans were so cruel to him. He used art as a relief–originally painting on the skateboards that he loved to ride. While cruising one night, he overheard ILLUCIDATE talking to themselves. MADCAP saw the way that they scribbled out poetry in their leather-bound notebook & knew that they were going to be great friends. ILLUCIDATE’s art flowed out as their way of making sense of life on this planet.

Soon after, the two of them began to create together–MADCAP’s raw experiences fueling ILLUCIDATE’s philosophical interpretations. One day, out of nowhere, they stumbled across AETHER sitting on the ground, a smile across his face, painting on the remnants of a cardboard box. They were perplexed at first, but then they saw the way that the guided globs of paint around his makeshift canvas & realized that he was also not from this world. AETHER made his art as his way of existing–creating from his connection to the cosmos and his expanse of love for just living.

Eventually, the three of them built their own AstroVan Space Shuttle to take flight, with plans of exploring the great unknowns of outer space. In an act of divine timing, they were given the gift of compound M.S.G., (no, not the food ingredient) which was just the right fuel source they needed in order to blast off into the cosmos & connect with the beings that they meet along the way. This is the band of interstellar travelers that we recognize as ALIEN DAYDREAMS™.