When we played on sculptures. The playground art of Jim Miller-Melberg
First -a quick request for some help: I am searching for one of the twisted DNA looking “tree form” play pieces - the small curved wall pieces and the smaller slides with the 3 holes shown in the pics below - if you have a lead… please let me know!
I grew up in a classic post war suburbia neighborhood in Maryland. One of my earliest fascinations (and perhaps a watershed moment which could be responsible for my retro design obsession) was the first time I saw the “Saddle Slide”.
I was four in 1975. I still remember going to the playground at my local elementary school for the first time and standing in complete awe of this creation. It made me feel instantly happy. It was pleasingly curved and seemed to want you to run your hands along it as you crawled all over it. It even provided some cave-like shelter underneath if you needed a break from the sun or wind. On a hot summer’s day, the smooth concrete construction was cool and refreshing against your skin. Sometimes I pretended it was a strange magical animal and sometimes it was spaceship from another world.
At that time, I of course had no idea about the details of how it came to be. I had no idea that it was a vision brought to life from the mind of artist and sculptor Jim Miller-Melberg. I just knew it was somehow something very, very special. Sometimes, I would even just sit on the steel monkey bars nearby and look at it because when I was playing on it I simply could not see it in it’s entirety.
There was also a shopping center nearby that had a play courtyard. The courtyard had green astro turf and in addition to a “Saddle Slide” like the one I enjoyed at the school- it was outfitted with several other Miller-Melberg creations. I spent some time crawling on these pieces as well on occasions when my family shopped there.
About 20 years ago, I knew the school was getting remodeled so I called the county and tried to purchase the Saddle Slide - but in the end, I was unable to get them to let me buy it and it was demolished. What a sad, sad day.
Recently though, I was able to find and rescue this one from a long unused park in Toledo, Ohio. THANK YOU, TOLEDO!
I will post some links below if you want to learn more about Jim Miller-Melberg and his creations. The first 2 pics in this entry shows the actual one I ended up getting. There are also some pics of his other creations.
Basically - Miller-Melberg was an inspired genius who - as an adult - was still able to tap into the imaginative heart and mind of a child. I got to play in a sculpture garden as a child and that did some wonderful things for my mind.
