Tsunami at Ali Cultural Arts Center — Art in the Wake of Anxiety and Transformation

On view January 30 through April 25, Tsunami is a deeply personal and

visually arresting 36-piece mixed-media series by Tracy Ann Simmonds that

transforms predatory lending mail, house paint, braided hair, pearls, and

other recycled materials into layered works about waste, identity, and

resilience. What began as anxiety over the flood of junk mail — more than

100 billion pieces annually in the U.S. — and the weight of creative and

emotional labor during the pandemic became a space for processing fear and

change through imagery inspired by tsunami dreams and the fluid line work

of Japanese masters. Tsunami uses shredded credit card mailers not just as

material, but as metaphor — turning detritus into vibrant surfaces that

explore sustainability, mental health, and the alchemy of art as healing.

Simmonds’ practice bridges photography, painting, installation, and

cultural storytelling; her gallery also features evocative bodies of work

like Euphoric Vistas: An Ode to Palm Beach, intimate nature photographs

created for hospital healing environments, and Botanical Intimacy, which

captures quiet floral moments woven into human experiences.

For the artist, Tsunami is more than a series — its potential as an

immersive installation with sculptural waves, soundscapes, and calming

light reflects her belief that art can be both a catalyst for reflection

and a balm for anxiety, inviting audiences to rethink consumption,

presence, and transformation.