Fire claims UI art student's portfolio -- just before graduation

Most of what University of Iowa studio art major Amy Leners lost during a fire in downtown Iowa City is replaceable. But not everything.

The fire broke out around 2 a.m. Saturday in the 200 block of Iowa Avenue.  Fire officials believe it likely started at Bruegger's Bagels and then spread to two nearby buildings.  The buildings all had apartments above them.

On Sunday afternoon, Leners and her mother, Colleen Adams of Des Moines, hunched over what few belongings they could salvage from the UI student's charred apartment.

“Now it's just getting everything out of the apartment they can save,” said Adams. “They have insurance, so hopefully that'll help.”

Sadly, the one thing Leners needs most as she approaches graduation is now gone -- her portfolio.

"It's a lot of work, a lot of hours,” said Leners. "It's my life. It's what I do.”

Inside a smoke-smeared folder, Leners sorts through four years worth of her artwork -- pieces she's been putting together since her freshman year at the UI, artwork she planned to submit to an art school in Chicago after she graduates this December.

“That's going to be really hard to do now without having a body of work to show," Leners said. "I might be taking a couple years off rebuilding."

Watching her daughter lose something she worked so hard for is difficult for Adams.

“It's heart wrenching,” Adams said. "A lot of late hours in the studio working until two and three in the morning, now it's all gone.”

Once the UI student sorts through where to live for the rest of the semester, she says she'll start trying to piece back the pieces of art that have shaped her college career.  In the meantime, Leners says she's realized an even more valuable portfolio she's built over the last four years -- her friends.

“I've gotten a hundred text messages,” Leners said. “People offering couches, clothes, food, cooking meals.  It's just really nice to have everyone around.”