Why Process Art Is Perfect for Your ADHD Brain
When the Point Isn't the Product
COVID-19 lockdown, no travel, and no in-person trainings.
That being the reality, I signed up for the American Art Therapy Association’s annual VIRTUAL conference.
One of the workshops I attended was on process painting. I didn’t know what that was at the time, but drawn to the word “process” so I jumped at the opportunity for this hands-on workshop!
After explaining the powerful process of approaching a blank canvas, following only the tiniest whispers of internal direction and letting our intuitive impulses lead the way, the presenter said something that changed everything: "This isn't about making something good. It's about the experience of making."
Forty-five minutes disappeared.
When I finally looked up, I had no idea what I'd painted. It wasn't "good" in any traditional sense. But something in my nervous system had shifted. The constant buzzing in my brain had quieted. My shoulders had dropped. I felt... settled. Present. Calm.
That was my formal introduction to process art. And it's become one of the most powerful tools I know for ADHD brains—especially for women who've spent their lives trying to be "good" at everything they touch.
You've Been Taught That Making Art Means Making Something "Good"
Here's what keeps creative women with ADHD stuck:
Most of us learned that art is about the product. The finished piece. The thing you can hang on a wall or show to others or feel proud of. We absorbed the message that "good" art requires planning, skill, proper technique, and a clear vision of what you're making before you start.
For ADHD brains, this creates an impossible situation.
Your ADHD brain craves novelty, exploration, and immediate engagement. It wants to follow curiosity, make unexpected connections, and see what happens when you mix this with that. It's not interested in carefully executing a pre-planned vision—it's interested in discovery.
But we've been taught that this exploratory approach is "messy," "unfocused," or "not real art." We've internalized the belief that if we can't stick with something long enough to make it "good," we shouldn't bother making it at all.
So we don't.
Or when we do try to create, we immediately get stuck in perfectionism, self-judgment, and anxiety about the outcome. We start something, decide it's not going well, and abandon it. We compare our work to others and feel inadequate. We pile up unfinished projects and use them as evidence that we're not "real" artists.
The problem isn't your creative capacity. The problem is that product-focused art is fundamentally at odds with how ADHD brains naturally want to create.
But process art? Process art is designed for exactly how your brain works.
The Reframe: Process Art Lets Your ADHD Brain Do What It Does Best
Here's the shift that changes everything: Process art isn't about making something. It's about experiencing something.
Process art means:
No plan before you start
No predetermined outcome
No judgment about whether it's "good"
No need to finish or perfect anything
Complete permission to follow curiosity wherever it leads
The experience itself is the point
This approach aligns perfectly with ADHD neurology in ways that product-focused art never can.
Your ADHD brain seeks novelty and stimulation. Process art provides constant novelty—you're discovering what happens as you go, which keeps your brain engaged without the dopamine crash that comes from already knowing the outcome.
Your ADHD brain struggles with long-term planning and delayed gratification. Process art requires neither—you're getting immediate sensory and creative satisfaction right now, not working toward some distant finished product.
Your ADHD brain loves making unexpected connections. Process art celebrates this—you're free to combine materials, colors, and images in ways that surprise you, without worrying whether they "should" go together.
Your ADHD brain has trouble with open-ended tasks that have no clear endpoint. Paradoxically, process art solves this by embracing it—when the point is the experience rather than the product, you're never "failing" to reach a goal. You simply stop when you're done exploring.
Your ADHD brain gets easily overwhelmed by too many steps or decisions. Process art removes most decisions—you're not deciding what to make or how to make it "right." You're just responding to what's in front of you, moment by moment.
Think about the things your ADHD brain naturally loves: diving down research rabbit holes, hyperfocusing on something fascinating, noticing patterns others miss, making intuitive leaps between ideas.
Process art lets you do all of this with your hands instead of just your mind.
You're not trying to execute someone else's vision of what art should be. You're exploring your own curiosity in real time, with immediate sensory feedback that keeps your brain engaged.
What Process Art Actually Looks Like
Process art can take infinite forms, but here are some approaches that work beautifully for ADHD brains:
Intuitive Painting/Drawing
Put colors on paper without planning what you're making. Follow your hand. Notice what colors you're drawn to. Let shapes emerge. Cover things up. Add more layers. Stop when it feels done (or when your focus shifts—both are fine).
Collage Exploration
Flip through magazines and tear out images that catch your eye without knowing why. Arrange them on a surface. Move them around. Glue some down. Paint over parts. Add drawing. There's no "correct" composition—just what feels interesting to you right now.
Texture and Material Play
Gather materials with different textures—fabric scraps, sandpaper, bubble wrap, corrugated cardboard, tissue paper. Glue them onto a surface. Paint over them. Notice how different textures feel under your hands and hold paint differently. The exploration is the point.
Mark-Making Meditation
Set a timer for 10-20 minutes. Make repetitive marks on paper—lines, circles, dots, squiggles. Let your hand move without your thinking brain directing it. Notice when your mind wanders and gently bring attention back to the sensation of making marks.
Color Studies
Choose 2-3 colors that appeal to you right now. Explore how they interact—mixing them, layering them, placing them next to each other. You're not making a picture—you're investigating color relationships.
Destruction and Reconstruction
Make something quickly without much thought. Then tear it up, paint over it, cut it apart, or cover it with gesso. Use the pieces to make something else. This removes preciousness and keeps things dynamic.
The key to all of these: There's no way to do it wrong because you're not trying to achieve a specific result.
Why This Particularly Matters for Women with ADHD
Women with ADHD often carry an extra layer of "good girl" conditioning that makes process art especially powerful.
We've been taught that our worth comes from:
Producing things others approve of
Being neat and careful
Following instructions correctly
Making things that are "pretty" or "nice"
Finishing what we start
Not making a mess
Process art gives you permission to violate all of these rules in a safe, contained way.
You can be messy. You can make something "ugly." You can abandon it halfway through. You can follow impulses that don't make logical sense. You can please absolutely no one but yourself.
For women who've spent decades trying to be "good," this kind of permission can be genuinely radical.
The Nervous System Piece
Here's something most people don't talk about: Process art is regulating for your nervous system in ways that product-focused art isn't.
When you're trying to make something "good," your nervous system is activated—you're in evaluation mode, judgment mode, performance mode. Your sympathetic nervous system is engaged, keeping you slightly stressed and vigilant.
But when you're doing process art—just exploring materials with no agenda—your nervous system can settle. The repetitive hand movements, the sensory engagement, the lack of evaluation—all of this signals safety to your body.
For ADHD brains that are often running in overdrive, constantly seeking stimulation and rarely feeling settled, this kind of regulation is huge.
Process art becomes a form of active meditation—but one that actually works for ADHD brains because your hands are busy and there's enough stimulation to keep you engaged.
I use process art this way myself. When my brain feels like it's spinning too fast, when I'm overwhelmed by decision fatigue, when I need to process something I can't quite articulate—I sit down with materials and just make marks. No plan. No goal. Just hands moving and brain settling.
The Practice: Start with 15 Minutes
Here's what you can do this week: Give yourself 15 minutes of true process art with zero expectations.
What You Need:
Paper (any kind—doesn't need to be fancy)
Something to make marks with (crayons, markers, pencils, paint—whatever you have)
Optional: Magazine images, glue, scissors
The Rules:
Set a timer for 15 minutes
Do not plan what you're going to make
Start by choosing a color or image that appeals to you right now
Let your hand move and see what happens
If you start judging it, notice that and come back to the sensation of making marks
Stop when the timer goes off (or earlier if you want—that's fine too)
What This Isn't:
This isn't art therapy (unless you're working with a therapist)
This isn't journaling (you're not trying to express specific thoughts or feelings)
This isn't practice for "real" art (this IS real art—it's just focused on experience rather than product)
What This Is:
Permission to follow curiosity
Nervous system regulation through creative engagement
Practice trusting your impulses without judgment
A way to satisfy your ADHD brain's need for novelty and stimulation
What to Do with It When You're Done:
Whatever you want. You can:
Put it in a drawer and never look at it again
Hang it up if you happen to like it
Paint over it tomorrow and use the same paper again
Throw it away
Take a photo of it and then destroy it
Cut it up and use pieces in another process art session
The piece itself doesn't matter. The experience of making it is what mattered.
When Process Art Becomes Practice
Here's what I've noticed: When women with ADHD give themselves regular permission to do process art, something shifts.
They start trusting their impulses more in other areas of life. They become less perfectionistic. They're more willing to start things without knowing exactly how they'll turn out. They're kinder to themselves when things don't go as planned.
Because process art teaches you, over and over, that the exploring itself has value. That following curiosity is worthwhile even when it doesn't lead anywhere "productive." That you can engage with something fully without needing it to be perfect or permanent or impressive.
These lessons are radical for ADHD brains that have been told their whole lives that they're not focused enough, not disciplined enough, not productive enough.
Process art says: “You're enough exactly as you are. Your curiosity is valuable. Your impulses are trustworthy. Your way of creating has worth.”
And after doing this enough times, you start to believe it.
You don't need expensive supplies, formal training, or a dedicated studio space to start doing process art. You just need 15 minutes and permission to make something that doesn't have to be good.
Your ADHD brain is already wired for the kind of exploratory, curious, intuitive creating that process art celebrates. You've just been told your whole life that this way of working isn't "real" art.
But it is. And it might be exactly what your nervous system has been craving.
Stop trying to make something impressive. Start exploring what happens when you simply follow your hands.
Want to explore this yourself, with a guide and a container? Check out my offerings and ways to work with me!
