5/5: In fiction, they call it the inciting incident: the moment that sets the story in motion. For painter Allan West that moment came in a burst of inspiration when he was still a young student in Washington DC. Japan was not yet on his radar, but he had already set his sights on becoming a painter. Not impressed with synthetic oil paints and headache-inducing thinners, he decided to come up with something better. First stop was the Library of Congress, where he embarked on a study of painti...
