Blending Artistry and Strategy: The Story Behind Piquant Media
Hello, dear readers! I'm Justine Johnson Kenahan, and I'm thrilled to share my newest endeavor with you.
If you know me already, you know that my passions for photography and advertising have taken me on some crazy adventures. If you’re just meeting me for the first time, I look forward to sharing my story with you and how I ended up here with Piquant Media, my latest and greatest brainchild.
From the earliest days of my teenage years, I fell in love with the art of photography. Armed with a trusty camera (another appendage, friends would say), I began to capture the world around me, driven by an insatiable desire to create beauty and magic through images. As I grew older, my passion only intensified, leading me to focus my college studies on the realms of art and communication, which ultimately served as a springboard for my future career in the ad world.
A career in advertising seemed like the reasonable path to achieve both a “professional” and “creative” status, as I knew I had to be in a creative field but I wanted to make good money. It was also a chance to combine my love for creativity with the practicalities of the business world (Pisces Sun, Capricorn Moon… makes sense though, right?). My skills led me to numerous Project and Account Management roles, but amidst the hustle, deadlines and stress of agency life, (and much to the chagrin of my managers), I harbored a not-so-secret dream to become a professional artist. I didn’t have the portfolio or formal training to be a Designer, and I wanted to transform my photography into more than just a hobby.
So in 2015, my side business, Piquant Photo was born. It became my artistic sanctuary - a place where I could explore creative possibilities without the stiff guidelines and red tape corporate America enforced with commercial client work. I sought to create visual stories filled with authenticity, truth, magic, sexuality and passion, and the unyielding power of the human spirit. My journey gravitated towards the intersections of fashion, identity, sexuality, and embracing feminist motifs that stirred my soul.
I became a weekend warrior, working my full-time 9-6 job during the week and booking photo shoots on the weekends. Over the years, I've had the privilege of teaching workshops, collaborating with incredible brands and influencers, and seeing my work featured in various publications and galleries both locally and nationally. My journey in photography has been nothing short of extraordinary, and it continues to fulfill me every day.
But there's another facet to my story. My career in marketing has provided me with a unique perspective about business that is sought after. It's given me a deep understanding of branding, strategy and a creative knowledge that is truly valuable to individuals and businesses seeking elevated opportunities for their future success. I realized that the expertise I had in my field and my artistic endeavors didn’t have to exist in a vacuum, so after completing several ad-hoc projects for some really cool folks, I found it was time to evolve Piquant Photo.
Hence, the birth of Piquant Media: a creative space where soulful, human-focused storytelling meets AI-infused creative and marketing strategy.
Through Piquant Media, I'm on a mission to break boundaries and explore the infinite possibilities that arise when soul, art and technology converge. I want to redefine how creative processes are defined and how AI is perceived in the context of humanity and storytelling. My goal is to prove that it’s possible to concoct the perfect potion of soulfulness, original art, marketing mastery and AI tools that ultimately create beautiful projects and experiences that resonate with authenticity and emotion.
So, whether you're here to support my latest adventure, for a potential project opportunity or simply curiosity’s sake, I'm excited to have you along.
Thank you for joining me on this journey. Let's make some art, tell some cool stories, and dive into the unknown together.
Justine
