18 Facts About Cal Schenkel

Cal Schenkel was the main graphic arts collaborator for rock musician Frank Zappa and was responsible for the design of many Zappa album covers.

Cal Schenkel was born in Willow Grove, Pennsylvania, on January 27,1947, and grew up in Oreland, Pennsylvania.

Cal Schenkel attended the Philadelphia College of Art, but withdrew after one semester and set out to build a career.

In 1967, Cal Schenkel relocated to New York City, where he was an unemployed artist.

Cal Schenkel was introduced to Frank Zappa by his then girlfriend, singer Sandy Hurvitz, later known as Essra Mohawk.

Cal Schenkel's artwork, influenced at first by the comic strip Krazy Kat and by Mad magazine, developed its own "primitive" "ragged" surrealist style.

In 1976, Cal Schenkel held an exhibition of his artwork in Greenfields Gallery at The Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington.

For over a decade, Cal Schenkel, working in either an annex of the Zappa household or in his own studio, attempted to give visual form to Zappa's music while developing his own, distinctive style.

Cal Schenkel built plaster figures, helped set up the staging for the photo, and put together the collage of people in the background.

Cal Schenkel made advertising comics published in comics magazines, which promoted Zappa's latest releases.

Cal Schenkel worked on album covers for Straight Records, a label owned by Zappa and manager Herb Cohen.

For Trout Mask Replica Schenkel went to a local fish market to buy the carp head that he wanted to use on the album cover.

Cal Schenkel hollowed out the head leaving just the face, like a carnival mask.

Cal Schenkel can be seen in the Zappa movies Uncle Meat and Video From Hell.

Cal Schenkel returned to Willow Grove hoping to jump-start an art career separate from Zappa and the record industry.

In 2012, Cal Schenkel appeared on the television program History Detectives.

Cal Schenkel was asked to comment on a re-discovered collage, made in the early 1960s.

Cal Schenkel illustrated the cover to Howard Kaylan's autobiography My Life with the Turtles, Flo and Eddie, and Frank Zappa, etc.