By Brianna Holcomb
Arts and entertainment editor

Knitting has always been thought of as a relaxing and joyous activity. Hayley Blomquist takes the idea of knitting to a whole new level in her gallery “Joy.”

Blomquist’s gallery is not a series of pictures, videos or even pieces of knitting. Nothing hangs on the wall of the gallery but her piece can be found spread across the floor as well as part of the wall of the gallery.

“Joy” is a 25-by-20-foot knit textile completely made up of paper towels held together by their own intricate workings.

The piece lies across the entire floor of the gallery. Its appearance comes off as a giant stiff blanket, something that one would imagine using to cover the floor of a room in order to make the space easier to sleep on.

It snakes across the floor, making the gallery look as though construction had taken place in the room and the material used took over.

Blomquist brings an alternative look to the world of art with this gallery. Many of the artists featured in the gallery have used multiple ways to express the things around them. Blomquist uses her art to express what joy is to her. The intertwining of the paper towels represents the feeling of joy.

“Joy is a process, a continual thread. Joy is finding comfort in the uncomfortable, finding happy in the mundane,” Blomquist said.

“Joy” is a gallery that sticks out in the viewer’s mind. It’s a unique idea of what joy really is to the person experiencing the feeling.

The notion of a series of events or moments intertwined within each other is the basic idea behind this gallery. An idea that we can all relate to.

The “Joy” gallery can be found in Calkins Hall.