He graduated with a B.F.A. in painting and drawing from Syracuse University School of Art, and an M.F.A. from the University of Denver School of Art, in painting and printmaking. Sheesley teaches art at Wheaton College and his work has been exhibited regularly in Chicago, including at the Chicago Cultural Center in 2010. In 2002 he received an Illinois Arts Council Fellowship, and in 2008 Sheesley’s painting was the subject of a major retrospective exhibition at the Brauer Museum of Art at Valparaiso University. In 2014 the Illinois Arts Council provided funding for Lincoln Marsh Journal, an exhibition catalog for “Landscape: the Knowable Mystery,” an exhibition of Joel’s current landscape paintings.