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A chance to sketch

The routine of working for an airline ground crew includes stretches of down time between balancing luggage loads on departing flights, guiding arriving flights to their gates and unloading luggage. Dittman used the pauses to hatch his artistic plans. He took portfolios and drawing pads to sketch in a vacant conference room between flights.

Trent Williams, another ground crew member, lived with Dittman for more than a year after transferring from Las Vegas. Williams recalled seeing Dittman wander the airport during breaks.

"He was drawing pictures and always going around the airport and looking at the sculptures, looking at the paintings," said Williams, 34. "He was just going around, seeing what artwork was there and what he could contribute to it."

Lugging suitcases every shift, Dittman started noticing the faded leather or canvas suitcases with stitched leather corners, the ones decorated with hotel stickers from around the world. Soon he was patrolling area flea markets and yard sales on his days off.

Vendors would see him coming and call out, "The suitcase guy is here!" and the vintage suitcases started piling up in his Durham home. He refurbished some, gave them to friends as gifts, and made loftier plans for the ones he kept collecting.

Flight of whimsy

About three years ago, Dittman approached Teresa Damiano, the airport marketing director, to pitch the idea of holding an art show featuring the work of airport employees.

At that time, the airport was also launching expansive plans for more public art, and Dunne ended up coming back with his idea for "Earlier Flight."

The airport authority was primarily reviewing proposals for larger installations from such established artists as Robert Kushner of Brooklyn, N.Y., who is preparing a stone-and-glass mosaic mural for the new terminal under construction. But Dunne's more modest idea also won favor, once he presented the authority some small-scale drawings and a prototype of a suitcase goose.

Tim Clancy, president of Clancy & Theys Construction, was chairman of the authority's ad-hoc committee on public art when Dittman made his presentation.

"The way he first described it, it could have been odd," Clancy said. "But then, anyhow, he came in with this goose and this concept, and it just sort of clicked for us. It's just sort of fun and whimsical."

Some passengers go through the airport atrium parking garage without even noticing the winged suitcases hanging overhead from stainless steel cables. A few paused Wednesday morning, tapped a traveling companion on the arm and pointed upward with a grin. Some offered only a raised eyebrow or disbelieving shake of the head; others plowed forward with heads down, never looking up.

New projects

Near the airport, Dittman still has more than 50 old suitcases in two storage units, which double as his studio. The crayon marks that his 4-year-old daughter scrawled across the bottom of one unfinished canvas, a painting of a green, 1957 Jaguar sports car, convinced him that it's safer to keep his work here than at home.

A recent shoulder injury convinced him that it was time to retire from the airport ground crew, but he manages a new offshoot of his family's trucking business to pay the bills. He has also picked up small art projects, including a series of paintings commissioned by a local collector of vintage cars.

One of the latest paintings for this collector features a Camaro strapped to a rocket booster, blasting off into space.

Local art dealer Wendy Ringenbach has displayed some of Dittman's paintings at her Madison Fine Art gallery in Brierdale Shopping Center.

"Dunne's got a great eye," she said. "His biggest strength is he perseveres, and he's very headstrong. So whatever he decides he's going to do, he's going to do it. It may not be the top-selling piece in my gallery, but it'll definitely catch your eye, grab your attention. And just like those people at the airport, they're stopping and looking, which a lot of art doesn't do that for people."

For now at least, Dittman said he's not thinking of new ways to rehabilitate the antique luggage he can't seem to resist. He figured it was good for at least another flock or two.

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