Execution:

After inspiration and conception comes execution. The process of execution is first of all that of

listening inwardly to the impression as it shapes itself; of allowing the form to grow; of following both

inspiration and conception wherever they may lead*. A phrase, a motif, a rhythm, even a line of sentence,

may contain within itself, in the composer’s imagination, the energy which produces movement. It will

lead the artist on, through the force of its own momentum or tension, to other themes, phrases, other

motifs, and what not?

The beginning of this step is determined by individual circumstances. In some instances it may follow

the incubation step in a matter of minutes, hours, or perhaps days. It may not come until years later. It

appears that the thinker cannot force his ideas to emerge, but being receptive, opportunistic, and alert

helps this creative step to take place. Many creative people feel that in creative step some power, outside

is trying to find expression through them. The most difficult question to answer here is: “When does the

idea appear or the creative material begins to flow?”

Usually with little or no warning the creative person “starts clicking” and the ideas and the creative

suggestions begin appearing. The individual reaches a new level of effectiveness and tends to overcome

previous obstacles and objections. The shutting out of distracting influences appears to be helpful for this

level to take place. It frequently takes place when least is expected. The right idea may come while one is

walking, looking out a train or airplane window, chopping wood, attending concerts, watching the flames

in an open fireplace, listening to music (without words), sitting in church, sailing or even when shaving.

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 An idea must be applied to realize its full value. Slight modification may have to be made to apply it

satisfactorily. Being objective is important in idea application. The idea was created to solve a specific

problem, and its application should do this. An idea for an idea’s sake was not the intent*. Also, it must

be remembered that the application of the idea might require some ingenuity. The people who accepts and

use the idea should possess some creativity in order to understand and utilize the idea properly.

Effective use of the creative thinking process can easily be the road to success and fame in

management. New and better ideas are needed if managerial work is to continue its progress. The creative

effort should come from the top, and a working climate conducive and encouraging to creativity should

be present. The creative atmosphere cannot be accomplished overnight or by mere gesture –no matter

how willingly the managers. It takes time, concentrated effort, faith in the creative process, and belief that

improvement and better objectives and means can and will be created.

Every utterance and every gesture that each one of us makes is a work of art; but here again the whole

constructive process which is a prerequisite both of the production and of the contemplation of the

performance is entirely overlooked*. Every gesture is no more a work of art than every interjection is an

act of speech. Both gesture and interjection are deficient in one essential and indispensable feature. They

are involuntary and instinctive reactions; they possess no real spontaneity. The moment of objectiveness

is necessary for linguistic and artistic expression. In every act of speech and in every artistic creation we

find a definite teleological structure. An actor in a drama really “acts” his part. Each individual utterance

is a part of a coherent structural whole. The accent and the rhythm of words, the modulation of his voice,

the expressions of his face, and the postures of his body, all tend to the same end –to the embodiment of

the human character. All this is not simply “expression;” it is also representation and interpretation*. Art

must always give us motion rather than mere emotion.

No doubt artifacts may be produced in different ways; and one of these precludes much examination,

since the work seems to issue from the dark of the mind without much awareness of how it comes. All

creations are to some degree automatic or problematic. But there is sometimes a very full consciousness

of the process, or of such of its aspects as are open to introspection. Many artists and thinkers have

written about the creative process as they have observed it in themselves. Yet there are not many very full

accounts of the production of specific works*. Even if the honesty of the reporter is unquestioned, his

method, of recollection and introspection, is hazardous. Yet it seems to be the only approach the reveals

the creative activities in any illuminating relation to the complex of meanings, the work of art or other

invention, that is developed amid them.

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 Nobody can drown in the ocean of reality who voluntarily gives himself up to the experience. They

are possible because in art the contrasting elements are not combined in logic, which can join things only

under certain categories and under the law of contradiction; they are combined in art rather as experience,

and experience has decided to ignore logic, except perhaps as another field of experience. Serious works

of art deals with the fundamental conflicts that cannot be logically resolved: we can state the conflicts

rationally, but Reason does not relieve us of them. Their only final coherence is the formal re-creation of

art, which freezes the experience as permanently as a logical formula, but without, like the formula,

leaving all but the logic out. Whatever there is of progress in life comes not through adaptation but

through daring, through obeying the blind urge. The whole logic of the universe is contained in daring,

that is, in creating from the flimsiest, slenderest support. In the beginning this daring is mistaken for

willpower, but with time the will (hetero) drop away and the automatic process takes its place, which

again has to be broken or dropped and a new certitude established which has nothing to do with

knowledge, skill, technique, or belief*.

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