Stamford Advocate, CT
Jan 30 2007
Elizabeth Tashjian, artist and founder of nut museum, dies at age 94
Associated Press
Published January 30 2007
OLD SAYBROOK, Conn. — Elizabeth Tashjian, the famed "Nut Lady,"
whose passion for nuts became her life’s work in her art and drove
her to establish a nut museum in her home, has died. She was 94.
Tashjian died Sunday at an Old Saybrook nursing home, where she had
spent the last five years.
A classically trained artist, the diminutive Tashjian painted more
than 100 works and sculpted about dozen other pieces, but it was in
the nut that she clearly found her muse. It was that artwork that
adorned her museum.
"I use the nut form to inspire my artwork and thinking philosophy,"
Tashjian said in a 2002 interview with The Associated Press. "I don’t
want my museum to be taken as a joke."
The collection, now housed at Connecticut College, includes metal
sculptures, a 35-pound coco de mer, nut masks, paintings and nuts.
There are also video clips from her four appearances on the Tonight
Show with Johnny Carson, and many newspaper clippings chronicling the
offbeat museum.
Tashjian was the subject of "In a Nutshell," a documentary by
independent filmmaker Don Bernier.
The only child of aristocratic Armenian immigrants, Tashjian studied
at the National Academy of Design in New York City and had a studio
in Carnegie Hall. She moved with her family to Old Lyme in 1950.
She was heavily in debt near the end of her life and her home was
eventually sold in 2003 to pay her creditors. With no surviving
family, a conservator was appointed to oversee her and her estate.
She founded the museum in 1972 in her 17-room East Lyme home. She
would educate visitors on different kinds of nuts. Then she would try
on masks that represented each nut, and quiz each visitor on what
they learned.
At first, admission to the museum was one nut. Tashjian later raised
it to $3 and one nut.
She had big designs for her beloved museum, even as she was confined
to the nursing home.
"I want to build a nut theme park," she said in the 2002 interview.
"One that will put Disneyland to shame."
A memorial service is pending.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
