Joe Mariscal was born in San Francisco.  He received his Associate of Arts degree from San Joaquin Delta College (SJDC), Stockton (CA), his BA in Art History from the Universidad de las Americas Puebla in Cholula, Mexico, and his master's degree in Art from Sacramento State University, Sacramento (CA). He has taught art at La Escuela Nacional de Arte in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, Deuel Vocational Institute State Prison in Tracy (CA), and SJDC, where he has worked for over three decades.

Mariscal was first inspired by Bruce Duke who taught ceramics at SJDC for over 40 years. Mariscal began experimenting with the ceramic medium, manipulating and altering thrown pots, face molds, and experimenting with "Funk Art" concepts. However, in 1969 Mariscal was drafted to serve in Vietnam.  He was awarded a Purple Heart and discharged in 1971.  Utilizing his G.I. Bill of Education, Mariscal moved to Cholula, Puebla, Mexico to continue his studies.  Here he was able to connect with his family's heritage and was introduced to Pre-Columbian ceramics.  He learned to burnish and smoke fire his pieces from Puebla potters and also studied with a local Talavera potter, Crecencio Villegas.  All of these influences are visible in his work: portrait masks, clay "Colima" dogs, miniature tableaus, and pieces that form a narrative.

Mariscal began his career with SJDC in 1975. He attributes regional artists such as Robert Brady, Peter VandenBerge, Esteban Villa and Jose Montoya as influences on the development of his work. Mariscal's sculptures are commentaries on life around him. Prison Series was created between 1981 - 1984, at the Deuel Vocational Institution in Tracy, (CA), on a grant funded by the California Arts Council. A similar figurative series resulted from working at the Alan Short Center for developmentally disabled adults in Stockton, (CA).

Mariscal's newest series of burnished ceramics figures was born after a long creative dry spell the artist says ended when he saw a traveling exhibition of Pre-Columbian ceramics at the Haggin Museum in Stockton (CA), from the Mississippi Museum of Art. "I decided to work in that same stylistic mode. I was interested in the same thing; reducing something to its essential form, and yet, keeping the spirit of it alive." Mariscal calls this new work "Post-Columbian" and the work is populated with his familiar dogs, insects, and sea creatures.

His sculpture is included in many museum and private collections, including the Crocker Art Museum, Porter-Price Collection, Arizona State University, Rene di Rosa Preserve Foundation, Georgia State University, and McDonald's Corporation, among others.