Two years ago, Clovis artist Iris Duarte received an eight-page letter from her daughter. Her daughter was changing gender from female to male and taking a new name: Ewan.

"Intuitively I knew it was coming," Duarte says of the letter. "To actually receive it and see that he had made the final decision to come out made it real. No more hoping, pretending, or denial."

As a former therapist, Duarte wasn't a stranger to emotional family revelations. But this time, she was living one. Now a full-time artist, she turned to what she knew best to work through her conflicting feelings. The result is "Trans-Formation," a show at Fig Tree Gallery. We caught up with Duarte to talk about the show.

Question: What was your initial reaction to the letter?

Answer: It was mixed. I was scared for Ewan. I was happy for him, as well. My main concern was the impact of being a transgender person in how a homophobic and hetero-normative world would affect his future life. Would he be marginalized, even physically attacked due to not fitting into the mainstream society?

How did working on this show help with your own transition to acceptance?

Making my art during this period of time gave me solace, peace and a place to find comfort as I examined my thoughts, feelings, and fantasies. I could still grieve, and the process of painting gave me space to find a way to contemplate my questioning, reflection and surrender. Painting opened my way to express rebirth, growth, and deeper awareness and understanding.

There's a painting in the show of a running woman. Tell us about it.

The painting is about the feeling of not wanting to deal with my fears, anxieties and worries for my emerging son. I am running away, but my feet are stuck in the ground. The figure is not finished intentionally ... because there is still a part of me that is not running. Even though I sometimes want to run, I am still fully present in the now. There is really no place to be or go, I must accept and be present no matter how difficult this process is.

You're blunt in your artist's statement about how your son's news affected you, describing it as like a death. Some people would have tried to downplay the anguish out of fear of not coming across as "tolerant" or "progressive." Your thoughts?

I was raised by parents who were Unitarian, political activists. They marched in the peace movement, civil rights and women's movement. To admit to my own limited tolerance of gender identity is not easy, and I felt ashamed. The reason I am so willing to share my personal process, is that I think in general our society is not educated, enlightened, or ready to accept transgendered people. I want people to see that this must change, even though it can be painful and difficult initially.