By the age of 16, Joseph would qualify as a “professional” artist, as his passion for animals led to his first commissions. He became obsessed with show dogs and learned everything he could about the breeds, reading books, memorizing pedigrees, attending shows, and talking to handlers. At the time he didn’t know that this was his first taste of “networking”, but it worked, and he was asked to paint several show dogs by the proud owners. He was amazed that people would actually pay him to paint their dogs. A that same time, Joseph worked at the local veterinarian clinic and met several other people who wanted lasting memories of their pets.

After High School at Notre Name, Joseph attended Los Angeles Pierce College and studied pre-veterinary courses and, of course, art. The class that changed his life was Advanced Casting, where he crafted and cast his first jewelry and sculpture designs. By the age of 20, Joseph attended the Gemological Institute of America for advanced jewelry design. He started designing custom jewelry and, ironically, a series of turtles and frogs playing sports, selling them at many of California’s juried art shows. His love of California’s coast, especially the central coast, where whales, otters and sea lions could be seen as he sat on large rocks jutting above the surf, stimulated his creation of marine life designs. He joined the American Cetacean Society and learned all he could about whales and dolphins. He began to show his larger sculptures of Humpback Whales at art festivals and won his first award at the Catalina Festival of Art in 1982. In 1983, he was invited to display his sculptures at the Dolphin Galleries and Lahaina Galleries on Maui.

Joseph was the first artist to display fine art bronze sculptures of marine life in Hawaii, in a way, pioneering the wave of artists to come. Such artists as Robert Lyn Nelson, Wyland and Christian Lassen have all acquired his creations. Over the next several years, Joseph would establish his work through many awards and competitions, showing his work in over 40 prestigious galleries during that time, both in the United States and internationally. He is most proud of his monuments, “Leaping Tuna” on the island of Catalina, as part of a California Historical Landmark, and “Companion”, a large Sea Turtle in front of the Registry Resort in Naples, Florida.

Over the last three decades, Joseph has devoted his life to his sculpture. He maintains a studio in the wine country of Temecula, California, where he sculpts all of his originals. Having worked with many fine art foundries, he has acquired the hands on experience essential to the art of fine bronze metal casting. To this day, he personally performs many of the complex tasks involved in the creation of his sculptures and strives for the highest quality in his sculptures, in both design and craftsmanship. In parting, Joseph says “Even with all of the success I have had, I still get the same excitement I did when I drew classmates in school, whenever one of my creations goes home with a new friend”.