Stick Figures: Las Vegas man turns canes into works of art

Kirk Baird

Monday, Oct. 2, 2000 | 8:10 a.m.

It's not always what goes into something; sometimes it's what comes out.

In Alex Rosenberg's case, it's a little of both.

A 66-year-old retiree, the longtime Las Vegas resident makes canes (or walking sticks, as he prefers to call them) and hiking sticks. Not the ordinary kind -- aluminum poles with little in the way of personalization.

Rosenberg, whose artistic moniker is Alex Rose, creates what he calls sculptures: wooden duck and eagle heads, aging faces that he carves from wood. He also works with beer taps, billiard balls and other "ordinary" items -- anything that will serve as the handle on his canes and hiking sticks.

He also carves the poles themselves, adding turquoise inlays, small grooves or ovals that look like the suction cups on a octopus tentacle.

"The uniqueness is in my designs," Rosenberg said. "They're not just canes, but a piece of walking sculpture."

In a small booth in Antiques on the Mall, 6665 S. Eastern Ave., Rosenberg is surrounded by roughly 50 of his creations, which sell for anywhere from $65 to $150, depending on the work involved.

It's a venture that seems to be paying off.

Rosenberg said he receives requests from people all the time who've seen the sign on his car advertising his work, or from people who've seen other people with his canes and want one for themselves.

Rosenberg's method is relatively simple.

He begins to think of an idea, draws out some rough sketches, gets a piece of maple wood and carves away.

Even as Rosenberg discusses the creative process, he demonstrates his method on a not-yet-completed duck with a small V-shaped gouge, gently carving little niches into it.

It's a long process, one that requires steady hands and patience to avoid mistakes. At least, that's the way it would seem.

"Usually my mistakes turn out to be my best work when I rectify it," Rosenberg said. "The fixing of it really brings out your creativity."

And in a good week his creativity yields four canes, some of which are custom creations for customers, and others that sit on display until they catch someone's eye.

As far as Rosenberg knows, he's the only artist who offers this kind of customized work in the state, if not on the West Coast.

So why he does he do it? It's not because of any personal need.

"No, not yet," Rosenberg laughed when asked if he needed a cane.

For Rosenberg, it's just a means of artistic expression.

"There's a great desire to create things," Rosenberg said. "My medium is sculpture -- I just happen to put it back on canes."

The New York City native said that his artistic side has always been there. It first began to manifest itself at age 15, when he would go to settlement houses (an after-school program similar to the YMCA) and take a woodshop class.

Rosenberg would make whatever project was scheduled, such as a lamp or ship.

Five years later, soon after he married Sylvia (they recently celebrated their 46th anniversary), Rosenberg joined the Army.

A year into his three-year-stint, he began to hand-carve wooden cufflinks, which he sold to friends and officers for extra money.

After leaving the Army, Rosenberg went back to school to be a hairstylist, a job he maintained for 30 years, but the artist never left.

While crafting hairstyles, he continued to make cufflinks. As the prevailing winds of fashion steered away from cufflinks, however, Rosenberg started to make jewelry from ivory.

"When it was legal," he adds.

Rosenberg set up small displays in his hairstyle salons to make a little extra cash. Some New York City jewelers noticed his work and were impressed enough to ask him to design pieces for various stores.

When he moved to Florida in the early '70s to open a salon there, he continued his hobby.

After moving to Las Vegas in 1979, he got into making custom knives, only to quit a few years later when he realized it was "dangerous."

"Some of the metal would be floating around the air and I would find it a week later on top of cabinets," he said. "I thought, 'I'm breathing this.' It got to be too toxic."

At that point he had left his job as a hairstylist and was working as a business broker. It was a job that consumed too much of his time for any hobbies, so his artistic side was put on hold.

Then, after open-heart surgery two years ago, Rosenberg decided it was time to retire. With nothing else to do he thought about taking up another hobby -- one that would also earn him extra income.

"I'd taken a little trip to Colorado and it jumped out at me: People do a lot of hiking and walking, so I decided to do hiking sticks, since we have Mount Charleston here and Red Rock Canyon," he said.

Realizing there was still more of a market to be tapped, Rosenberg opted to expand his work to include canes to meet the demands of the growing senior citizen population in Clark County.

So he went to the library and did some research. He found that he was attracted more to the old-style wooden canes than anything new.

His first cane creations were simple. As he got more comfortable, however, he began to experiment with the texture -- creating, for example, what he calls the "moon crater effect" where he places small holes in the surface.

It's those types of effects that give his canes an originality -- no two are alike, he said -- that people respond to. And not just the older crowd.

Rosenberg said he's had several musicians purchase his canes not as a means to aid in mobility, but more "to be noticed."

Ultimately, he plans to take his work further. There are some who admire his craftmanship but have no need for a walking device.

So he plans to make the headpieces larger to serve as sculpture pieces. "I can reach more people with sculpture," he said, "When you make the pieces bigger, such as the eagle, it becomes sculpture."

He's quick to point out, however, that he will continue to make the canes and hiking sticks.

"People have to be happy," Rosenberg said of his goals for his work. Hopefully, "it serves some artistic purpose in their life other than a cane."