ABOUT

by Megg on June 12, 2010

PopArtichoke is a place for home-cooked food, the world of bento-making, and culinary exploits!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
PopArtichoke is owned and written by me, Megg. I’m a Chicago native with a passion for food and an obsession for bento boxes. For most of my life, I was an artist, or considered one at least. I was going to school for it, I had an arty job, and frankly, was pretty good at it. Still, it was becoming increasingly apparent to me that I didn’t want to pursue art as a career.

As for cooking, I’d never really done it. As a child I was allergic to dairy, was a vegetarian on-and-off for about 10 years (until a few years ago, actually) and grew up in a household of health food that was, let’s say, less than appetizing to my young palate, and otherwise basic meals. Then I started working at a grocery store, making signs and doing art and happening to pick up a lot of culinary knowledge while doing so. After years of using ignorance as an excuse, I finally stopped saying “I don’t know how to cook” and just started cooking. Believe it or not, it was actually that simple.

So after a lot of practice and reading and observing and so forth, I started getting pretty good, and started focusing on making the food look pretty and taking photos. Around the beginning of 2010 I started posting photos online with regularity, and suddenly found myself with way too many friends trying to get me to cook for them. Around this time I also discovered bento boxes, first as just a way to bring food to work or school in order to save money, and then I just couldn’t quit. I started a photo diary of my bento boxes as a way to get myself to make them every day I worked, and then dove into full-time bento obsession mode.
After a few months of bombarding my friends with photos of food, people started suggesting I start a blog. And so, here we are!

ABOUT THE NAME:
I struggled to think of a name that referenced both food and my arty past, and if possible, a bento reference as well. Pop art is often colorful (and I LOVE bright colors in art and in food), draws from pop culture mass media such as advertising (which I always liked because it’s practical application of art, much like food), comic books (which I love in their own right, and what-do-you-know, the frames are rather like a bento box!), and themes of repetition/reproduction (I almost always cook meals for at least two, and if you’ve ever witnessed the line in a professional kitchen, it’s pretty amazing) and consumption (this one should be obvious!). And artichokes? They’re just really effin’ delicious!

So welcome to PopArtichoke, and enjoy!

COPYRIGHT AND USAGE TERMS:

PopArtichoke by Megg is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

If you wish to use, reference, reproduce or reprint ANY content from PopArtichoke, make sure you read my licensing conditions and specifications found here:
Copyright and Usage Terms.

For most of you out there, I’m certainly not trying to scare you off; I’m just working to protect my hard work and also to keep you informed so you don’t accidentally violate my terms of usage. I really encourage and appreciate (properly attributed) links and references to my blog… heck, you’re doing me a favor by spreading the word! Plus, the whole reason I have this blog is to share recipes and more in hopes that you too will try them out!

But unfortunately there are those out there who purposely and carelessly steal, plagiarize, and abuse the works of others, and those people should consider themselves forewarned. I track my work really well, and I’ve already had to deal with people trying to use my photos without proper permission and I don’t have a lot of sympathy for those people. It is stealing, and it’s illegal. Plus, it’s pretty easy to condemn those who do this and word gets around fast on the ol’ internet (just do a Google search for “Cooks Source”). So watch your backs, plagiarizers of the internet world!

If you are unsure, or want permission to use something, contact me at popartichoke [AT] gmail [DOT] com.