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With Mindfultober coming up, I’ve been talking to people about it quite a bit. One of the expressions I keep using is process-based art – about how Mindfultober is focused on process-based art instead of outcome-based art.
I thought it might be helpful to do a little deep dive into what I mean by that. This distinction really sits at the heart of what Mindfultober is all about, and understanding it can help you get the most out of the challenge.
When I talk about outcome-based art, I’m describing a way of making where the most important thing when you are creating – and when you’ve finished creating – is the final product.
It’s all about what it looks like and how you feel about what it looks like. These are the pieces we tend to call our finished works.
For me personally, that might be things like my Dreamscape pieces (above) or my figurative paintings – pieces like Awakening and Lavender – or other portraits I’ve done. These are outcome-based because, for me, the focus was on getting them to a finished state where they looked the way I wanted, or at least where I felt happy with how they turned out in the end.
A lot of us create art this way. Whether it’s a still life, a landscape, a portrait, or an abstract piece, there’s usually a goal: we’re trying to make something that looks or feels “right.”
And that makes sense – this is the type of art most people think of when they hear the word “art.”
Process-based art, on the other hand, has almost nothing to do with the finished product.
That can feel like a mental sticking point at first because we’re so used to evaluating art by the final result. But for process-based art, it’s about how it is, how it feels, what your experience is while you’re making it – irrespective of what it looks like in the end.
This is a very different kind of activity. It’s much more about how you feel, how the art itself feels, than about what you’ve created.
Often mindful art is naturally more focused on process, because mindful activities – whatever they are – encourage you to lean heavily into really experiencing the process as you do it.
Just like you might mindfully brush your teeth by paying attention to every single tooth for the whole two minutes, you can mindfully create art by focusing on each brushstroke or mark you make.
But when you’re focused on the outcome – “I want this portrait to have a lot of likeness” or “this landscape needs to look exactly like the one before me”- you can’t split your attention deeply between both things.
That’s why process-based art and outcome-based art don’t tend to sit well together. When you give yourself permission to just create without worrying about the result, you open up space for a completely different experience – one that’s free, playful, and deeply restorative.
Process-based art can work as a brain break. It puts your mind into what’s called default mode processing. (If this sounds familiar, you might have heard me talk about it in my Skillshare classes; A Mindful Approach to Practicing Watercolor: Values, Palettes & Brush Control.)
It’s like when you stop actively thinking about something you’ve been mulling over, and then suddenly – poof! – the solution appears out of nowhere. Maybe you’re in the shower, or out for a walk, or doing something repetitive like folding laundry, and all of a sudden, an idea just clicks.
That’s your brain working in the background while you do something else – and process-based art gives you exactly that kind of space.
It also gives you an opportunity to practice the practical skills associated with the kind of art you make or want to make – but without the pressure of needing to get it “right.”
This combination of relaxation and skill-building is incredibly powerful, and one of the best reasons to include process-based art in your practice.
I want to be really clear about something: I don’t want everything to be about making you more productive.
Life is more than enhancing our productivity constantly. Life is a thing that we get to live.
Process-based activities help you do exactly that – they encourage you to slow down and actually experience your life. They’re about presence, not performance.
Doing process-based art encourages you to be present for the experiences that are going on around you and to participate in them fully.
It’s nurturing, restorative, and a form of self-care.
Process-based art and art challenges like Mindfultober are designed to encourage you to take that step back – to make space for play, exploration, and joy in your creative practice.
Mindfultober is about taking the time to make art in a way that supports and restores you.
Whether you think of yourself as an artist or not, process-based art can have a place in your life. It’s a gentle, grounding way to reconnect with yourself – and that’s exactly what Mindfultober is here to celebrate.
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