Once chocolate gets heated, it must remain in a constant state of motion until molded into a specified shape and then allowed to remain still.
In the case of Rebecca Ruth’s bourbon balls, that process falls to a third-generation candy factory owner constantly in motion.
Charles “Charlie” Booe is the candy man.
But he is more than that. After buying Rebecca Ruth Candy from his father, Charlie attended business school, taking art classes on the side to fulfill his love for painting.
“Business is an art,” he says with a slight Southern drawl. “It takes a certain kind of inspiration and creativity in order to do it right.”
Outside the walls of his historic Second Street factory and store, Charlie also oversees nearly 30 properties scattered throughout Franklin County under his company, Booe Properties.
From commercial spaces and residential apartments to candy factory and warehouses, Charlie stays in motion, handling the many problems that pop up and supervising every detail.
However, in rare moments of stillness, he visits his painting studio in his warehouse or spends time with his family at home or at the candy factory.
From business to painting, it’s the small things that he sees.
“Where you see a tree, I see the branches, the bark, the leaves — the whole picture and all of the details,” he says.
Painting provides an expression of art separate from the structured rhythm of his business life, he says.
“I consider myself more a custodian of it than owner,” he says of his business. “I’m just one guy in its history and, hopefully, it will have a long history past me.”
