In 2008, my co-founders and I had a successful exit of our recycling business with a sale to Waste Management. From there I was recruited by Pegasus Capital Advisors to become an Operating Partner.

What I didn’t realize was that I went from being hands-on, pushing a business forward, to being on conference call after conference call with companies that either wanted Pegasus to invest in them or with portfolio companies we were already invested in. For the first year, I walked during the calls for up to 6-8 hours a day.

Then one day I realized I had to do something different. So I went to Aaron Brothers Art Mart and bought some paints and a few canvases and alternated from walking to painting while on conference calls. I still do this today with Zoom. I just tell everyone up front that I’m not going to be on video (I guess it’s not a secret now).

My friend Jeff Smith, the “Alexa Guy,” built this site for me to show a few pieces. I usually give them away, but have some in storage. I really never thought of keeping a photo log, but in the ConferenceCall.Gallery you can see some of them.

What’s interesting is that whenever I look at the art, I can remember almost every conference call in detail. It’s also worth noting that calls that were not positive produced dark pictures, while great calls produced brighter art — yep, often even with the same exact palate of colors. Crazy. If nothing else, I hope this site inspires you to do more on conference calls than just sit there

—OnWard and UpWard AZ