Frank Ditman
Paper Artist
Day after day, Frank Ditman sits at a table in the Broadkiln Veterans of Foreign Wars hall, rolling, twisting, folding and cutting narrow strips of colored paper into impossibly intricate leaves, blossoms and stems. When he has enough, he takes them home and meticulously glues the miniature botanical elements onto heavy paper, creating three-dimensional greeting cards, place cards, gift tags and wall decor. They suggest the kind of hand-crafted romantic missive that might have been sent to a cosseted, corseted Victorian lady. But Ditman, 56, is no 19th-century swain wooing his valentine with dainty floral offerings. He is, improbably, a long-haired and bearded, heavily tattooed, Harley-driving Vietnam vet who nearly died in a horrific Memorial Day encounter with a tractor-trailer in 1999. That wreck forced the amputation of most of his left leg and permanently damaged his left hand. He spent six months recovering at Baltimore’s Kernan Hospital, and 30 more months as an outpatient there. To preserve both his sanity and the remaining mobility in his fingers, Ditman starting fishing envelopes out of trash cans and wrapping torn scraps tightly around a toothpick, twisting them into tiny curled shapes. When he slipped the first one off, he said, “it looked like a tree branch, so I began experimenting.”
Today, nearly seven years after the accident, his creations – including matted and framed or shadow-boxed baskets of flowers – are sold in several area museums and shops, including Pulp in Washington. Retail prices range from $4 for tags and place cards to $125 for the largest pieces of wall art.
Visit their website or give them a call: 410-244-6450
Shop Local. Shop Green. Shop Woman's Industrial Exchange.
Baltimore, MD 21201 |
Monday: 11am - 4pm Tuesday - Friday: 11am - 6pm Saturday: 11am - 5pm |
Fax: (410) 685-8915 |
