Daily Creativity: Maai

Maai Aikido PaintingDaily Creativity: Maai

Maai is the distance you set up in aikido before performing techniques. It’s very important to start at maai because at that distance neither party can do anything to the other party without moving closer, but it’s close enough that you don’t have to cross much distance to start.

I think this concept is interesting and it’s something that can be carried into life. When you start anything you want to start it with proper perspective and distance. You want to be prepared but not over prepared, you want to consciously start something before you are already in it. With the proper distance almost any challenge can be handled.

I painted this in Art Rage using the oil painting settings. I was originally going for my blob people look but there are just too many angles in aikido so they took on their own form.