For some reason, one of Jessica Daniel's worst fears is that her house would burn down and she'd lose everything. So the aspiring studio artist and photographer played off that fear to create what would become her first professional sale.

Daniel graduated in May from the Women's College of Brenau University. For her senior project she challenged her closest friends with the question, "What is the first item you would grab if your house caught on fire?" Their responses precipitated Daniel's collection, called "Irreplaceable?" - a series of seven large-scale photographs displaying individuals with a variety of objects. In addition to Daniel's getting a top grade for the project, Brenau President Ed Schrader bought the portfolio for $1,650 for the university's permanent art collection.

Daniel said the most challenging aspect of the process involved finding innovative methods to depict the person with the treasured object. "What they would choose to save would most likely say something fundamental about them as people," she said. "I wanted to capture the emotion or the relationship between the person and [his or her] item."

Daniel remained unsurprised when two friends chose technological items - a laptop serving as a photograph album and a cell phone functioning as an address book. Three friends chose living objects, a cat, a child and a significant other, while the others selected books and a map of a favorite place.

Each year it has been Schader's custom to pick one graduating senior's work from the annual student portfolio exhibits in Brenau's galleries. His criteria is purely subjective - he buys what he likes. However, Tonya Cribb-Curran, who recently stepped down as Brenau's gallery director and arts management program director, described the theme of Daniel's work as "unusual and engaging and takes the images beyond simply 'pretty pictures' or 'pleasant compositions' You definitely get the feeling that what they would 'save' is important to them." Technique wise, Cribb-Curran note the effective values of the black and white compositions, which create a "dynamic image."

Born in Banks County and now a Gainesville resident, Daniel said she considers art to be the "greatest form of self-expression," adding that she has been interested in the field for as long as she can remember. Daniel followed middle and high school art and photography classes with studies at Gainesville's Quinlan Visual Arts Center. In May, she graduated from Brenau with a bachelor's degree in fine arts. She has also participated in study abroad programs in Italy and England And, on encouragement of her Brenau faculty adviser, Mary Beth Looney, she donated some of her earlier photographs to the Inchbald School of Design in London, which she had visited with other Brenau students and faculty during a 2007 trip.

"Since I was able to use a camera, I've liked taking pictures," she said. Although she primarily focused on sculpture and other studio arts in her studies, she said she picked the photographic medium for her senior thesis because she had never worked in a studio with arranged lighting and wanted to get her "feet wet" before moving on to grad school or her career.

Brenau faculty is currently searching for a long stretch of wall out of direct sunlight to install the series. The seven works, which each measure 20 by 30 inches, are intended to be presented as a whole.

Can anybody else buy this new professional's work? You bet. Photographs and sculptures can be purchased by contacting her via telephone at 770-519-5462 or email at jdaniel@brenau.edu.