The Journey Continues
The Art of Reinvention
Welcome to The Journeyman Project
If you’re new here—whether you found me through the Journeyman Vol I: The Search soundtrack, YouTube, Substack, or a friend’s forward—welcome. I’m glad you made it to SunTurtle Studios, the home port for everything The Journeyman: the book, the music, the paintings, the photographs, and the long, messy road that led to all of it.
There comes a moment in every life when the road behind refuses to stay quiet, and the road ahead depends on finally listening. That’s what The Journeyman is for me. Not a highlight reel and not a victim story, but a true account of five generations of chaos, love, failure, grace—and the stubborn decision to reinvent rather than repeat. I spent thirty years wearing the suit of a stockbroker while a painter, writer, musician, and father lived underneath, banging on the walls. This project is me finally opening the door.
I’ve always been drawn to journey stories—Jack London alone in the North, Joshua Slocum circling the world in Spray. Those men sailed into the unknown with nothing guaranteed except risk and possibility. In their wake you can also feel the spirit of books like Angela’s Ashes, Beautiful Boy, and The Glass Castle—stories that stare down poverty, addiction, and family wreckage, yet still reach for hope. The Journeyman lives in that lineage: part sea story, part family reckoning, part love letter to the people who made it out—and the ones who didn’t.
Under the SunTurtle Studios umbrella, the project has become a full multimedia ecosystem:
A memoir told in stories across five generations
A two-volume soundtrack of original songs written in both the darkest and brightest hours
Paintings that arrived like visions when language wasn’t enough
Photographs and video that document a lifetime of seeing—and surviving—the world as an artist in disguise
Recently, my son Grant and I took a long journey together by sea, threading our way down the coast. It was more than a trip; it was a living chapter of this story. Two generations on the water, talking about legacy, addiction, courage, and what it means to break the pattern instead of passing it on. That voyage helped shape the tone of this next chapter: not just survival, but conscious reinvention—for me, for my children, and for my grandson.
At the heart of The Journeyman are deeply personal themes, but I believe universal:
Love and abandonment
Addiction and codependence
Spiritual hunger and creative awakening
Generational wounds—and the fierce will to finally break the cycle
I grew up in a broken house. I spent years trying to hold other people together while quietly coming apart myself. I’ve had to make impossible choices—like letting go of a son in order to protect a grandson. Writing this book, painting these canvases, and composing these songs became my way of telling the truth about all of it. Not to settle scores, but to make meaning. To say: this is what happened, this is what it cost, and this is what is still possible.
The newly released Journeyman Vol I: The Search soundtrack is the musical spine of that journey—the early years of wandering, longing, getting lost, and refusing to give up. The songs now live on Spotify, Bandcamp, YouTube, and beyond, but they all point back here—to the larger story and to the book that holds it all together.
The Substack and the broader SunTurtle Studios world are meant to be a living extension of The Journeyman project. In the weeks ahead, I’ll be sharing:
Excerpts from the memoir
Stories behind specific songs on the soundtrack
Paintings and photographs that grew out of the same moments
Updates on live shows, videos, and new releases from the studio
If you’ve ever used music, memory, or creativity to make it through the night… if you’re trying to reinvent yourself in the second, third, or fourth act of your life… you’re in the right place. This isn’t a fan club; it’s a gathering place for late bloomers, storm breakers, and quiet survivors.
If what you’re reading and hearing resonates with you, I’d be honored if you would subscribe to my Substack site, https://substack.com/@thejourneyman1, or download the Album, https://timcooney.bandcamp.com, and join me at the very beginning of this next phase. Your preorder doesn’t just buy a copy—it sends a signal that stories like this matter: stories about families that don’t fit the postcard, about art that grows out of wreckage, about the possibility of beginning again when the world says you’re “too late.”
Thank you for listening, for reading, for following SunTurtle Studios and The Journeyman wherever you found me—Substack, YouTube, Instagram, Bandcamp, or a late-night scroll that landed you here.
Welcome to the journey—and to the art of reinvention.
