What would you do if you had only one more day? That’s the reality Seattle-based artist, Joshua Monuteaux, who lives with stage 4 cancer, wakes up with each morning. And with every new day he’s afforded, Monuteaux answers: He will make artwork and do so with a sense of excited immediacy.

A native Seattleite, Monuteaux found himself working an essentially meaningless warehouse job at Boeing that was slowly turning into a meaningless career. In the wake of his diagnosis this situation came to be increasingly intolerable. In January of 2015 he walked away from the company to double-down on his passion for art.
Monuteaux has come to terms with his own death and in doing so, he lives with the mantra that “Time is a commodity,” which instills in him the energy and resourcefulness to make the most of the time he has left. With the help of this maxim and some cutting-edge pharmaceuticals, Monuteaux has lived years past his initial prognosis and continues to create intricate, colorful works that depict his favorite Emerald City locations and landmarks.
Over the years, Monuteaux’s creative approach has evolved. Today, he uses cut paper to make his artwork. Just as his life has a pre- and post-cancer diagnosis demarcation, Monuteaux’s work also has two sides to it. It can be observed up close for its detail and textiles and at a distance for its portrait or landscape vastness. After all, his art, like his life, is all about shifts in perspective.