Joel Tea began his educational experience in the Honors Program at the University of Utah in the fields of Mathematics and Biology. Eventually he left his staff position to pursue a more creative, as well as physically challenging path which lead him to the position as an art foundry manager.

Two years later, in 1978, he moved to Philadelphia where he studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts and the Frudakis Academy of Sculpture. In 1979 he opened his own bronze casting foundry and began casting works for himself and other working artists. In 1981 he moved to his current location outside of Cochranville in Southern Chester County, Pennsylvania where he has personally cast and finished several thousand bronzes.

In 1991 he was elected as a Professional Member of the National Sculpture Society in NYC, has shown in numerous juried shows in the Eastern half of the United States, and is collected in the US and France.

His interest is in the sculptural juxtaposition of characters and their interaction in the world. The work often uses figures in a traditional or classical theme as a starting point, and then looks beyond it for a line of tension or a thread of interplay.