Joyce Wielend was born in Toronto in 1931 and grew up in a poor, poverty stricken family with her brother and sister. Showing a flair for creativity, Joyce attended Central Tech where she studied under Doris McCarthy a landscape painter who was instrumental in encouraging her talents, which included painting, sculpture, assemblage, quilting, and filmmaking.

Weiland's first contact with filmmaking came through a position she held at Graphic Films in Toronto after completing high school. There she became acquainted with the means and mechanics of film animation, which was to be a structural source for her painting and filmmaking for years to come. It is also at Graphic Films that she met Michael Snow whom she married in 1956. Shortly thereafter she had her first solo show in 1960 at the Isaacs Gallery in Toronto.

In 1962 the couple moved to New York City where they lived for nearly ten years, becoming involved with the rapidly developing American avant-garde film and art movement. Gaining popularity in New York, Wieland soon began experimenting with a variety of materials in a variety of mediums. She did a series of paintings about plane crashes, sinking boats and other large disasters. When she returned to Canada both she and her husband brought with them the art and creativity that would be instrumental to bringing underground film back to the Canadian art community.

After returning to Canada, Wieland was at the height of her career. A solo exhibition of her work at the National Gallery of Canada, which opened on Canada Day 1971, was entitled, "True Patriot Love”, and Joyce became the first living female to be the subject of a retrospective at the Gallery. Many of her quilts and paintings were shown in the exhibition, and the extra fame led to her being commissioned to design a Canadian stamp.

As her career progressed, Joyce stayed out of the spotlight though she continued creating prolifically. As her health declined she became reclusive though strongly remembered and celebrated for her work as an artist, political activist, feminist and a nationalist.

Joyce Wieland died in Toronto at the age of 66, in 1998. She is often regarded as one of Canada's most famous female artists.