Strokes in Glass

This new sculpture, Endurance, which hangs near the roof of Weld Boathouse, depicts part of the trail behind a single scull: the shell’s wake in the center and puddles from successive oar catches at the sides. Rendered from four-foot-long rods of flameworked borosilicate glass, the piece was commissioned by the Friends of Harvard Rowing for Weld’s centennial in 2006. There was a party then, but the Friends felt that a more lasting memento was also appropriate; the work took three years from conception to completion. Sculptor Ellen Kennelly ’85, M.Div. ’90, rowed at Radcliffe and is an elite masters sculler who has won the Head of the Charles 10 times in the single scull. Many types of boats are launched from Weld’s docks, but Kennelly says the larger shells create an unaesthetic turbulence in the water. “The single,” she asserts, “is the only one that leaves behind something pretty.”