HIDDEN TALENT HOMELESS ARTIST NEEDS HELPING HAND.

Byline: DENNIS McCARTHY 

They make a perfect pair - the mutt and the old artist. A couple of homeless pals living out of a cardboard shanty in an alley in the shadow of Van Nuys Airport.

That's where truck driver Hector Frasier first saw them about a year and a half ago, walking down the street together.

Tonie Michael, the old artist, pushing his shopping cart, and his dog, Skipper, walking alongside him.

``You see a lot of homeless people when you're driving the streets of the Valley every day, but this one just seemed so sad to me because the man was so old and his dog looked pretty beaten down, too,'' Frasier said.

``I had a delivery stop to make first, then I went back and found them in the alley.''

Frasier took the sandwich he had bought for lunch and offered it to the old man.

``Excuse me, sir, but would you mind taking this sandwich?'' he asked.

``Only if I can give you something in return,'' Michael said, reaching into his cardboard shelter, and handing Frasier two prints of a beautiful California sunset.

``They were incredible, signed and dated from one of his original paintings from 1982,'' Frasier said. ``I was stunned. What was an artist with this kind of talent doing living in an alley?''

Michelle Matthews and her boss, Les Jarrin, who owns Jarrin Printing & Imaging in Van Nuys, were wondering the same thing.

They had met Michael one morning a few years ago as he fed some pigeons near their shop.

``He looked like he had barely enough food to keep himself and his dog alive, and here he was sharing it with some pigeons,'' Matthews said.

``Les gave him $10, and we started talking,'' Matthews said. ``That's when he told us he was an artist, and asked if we'd like to see his work.

``When we saw the remarkable original works he showed us, we were stunned,'' she said. ``They were beautiful. We offered to reprint them for free so he could hopefully sell them to buy supplies to keep painting and to eat.''

Like Frasier, she sees a lot of homelessness in her area of the Valley, but the old artist is different, Matthews said.

Both she and Frasier have been trying hard to help Michael get back on his feet, and not once has he ever asked them for a dime, they say.

``He doesn't drink, do drugs or smoke,'' Frasier said. ``He's just a talented old guy looking for a hand, not a handout.''

They've been together for about five years now, a couple of castoffs with no place to go and no one to go with.

``Skipper had been hit by a car and given up for dead,'' Michael said Friday on the drive from his alley shanty to a Van Nuys storage bin where he keeps his original art safe.

``I nursed him back to health, and he's returned the favor by helping me through some pretty tough times myself,'' he said. ``Skipper's a good dog, my best friend.''

Promises broken and art deals gone bad left him broke and without a roof over his head in 1996, said Michael, now 87, who was born and raised in Portland, Maine, before starting his career in Canada.

This is his third alley shanty in five years, and without the kindness of some local businesses in the area that open their washrooms and sometimes even a back room to him when the weather gets really bad, he and Skipper would be in pretty deep trouble, Michael says.

``Just about everything's been stolen from me out on the streets, including my wallet with everything to my name in it,'' he says.

``But you meet good people out here, too,'' he said. ``People like Hector and Michelle, people who stop to offer you food, some clothing, and a little kindness.

``It's my art that keeps me alive, though,'' he says. ``At my age, it's been getting tougher. I'll be 88 in November, and my eyesight is nearly gone, and so is my hearing.

``But I've still got my paintings,'' he said, opening the door to his secret storage bin that holds hundreds of beautifully framed paintings of sunsets, space, butterflies, and lunar eclipses - all signed and dated by Tonie Michael.

As Frasier said, the old artist living in an alley with his best friend - a mutt named Skipper - is only looking for a hand, not a handout.

If anyone is interested in seeing and maybe buying a few of Michael's prints, give Michelle Matthews a call at Jarrin Printing, [phone].

CAPTION(S):

2 photos

Photo:

(1 -- color) Homeless artist Tonie Michael, 87, shows off some of his artwork. He and his dog Skipper live in a Van Nuys alley.

(2) With Skipper standing by, homeless artist Tonie Michael shows truck driver Hector Frasier some of his artworks. Promises broken and art deals gone bad left him broke and without a roof over his head in 1996, said Michael, who'll be 88 in November.

Phil McCarten/Staff Photographer