Charlie Lecka, 12, stands among Evening Bloom, his metal art on display in downtown Boone. Lecka’s work was selected by the Downtown Boone Development Association’s Public Art Program to be installed near Boone Town Hall and remain in bloom through August 2010. The public art program’s youngest artist, Lecka is a resident of Newland and currently a 7th-grader at Avery Middle School. He crafted the sunflowers by cutting the shapes, arranging them in order, and then welding them together. Though Lecka aspires to be an orthodontist, welding and metal art could become a fruitful hobby. After all, it runs in the family – his father, Steve Lecka, owns Avery Machine Welding in Newland.