MIDDLETOWN, Conn., Feb. 4 (UPI) -- Elizabeth Tashjian, a famed expert and enthusiast on nuts who long championed a nut theme park, has died in Connecticut at the age of 94.
The matriarch of the Nut Museum in Old Lyme, Conn., Tashjian spent her life embracing the nut through her own nut-based artwork up until her death last Sunday, The New York Times said.
"She became a visionary avant-garde artist," Dr. Christopher B. Steiner, a staunch supporter of Tashjian, said.
Tashjian's unusual affinity for nuts took center stage in the U.S. media after the former academic painter appeared on several TV talk shows to share her interest with hosts such as Johnny Carson and David Letterman.
Steiner details those televised appearances and Tashjian's second life as a media darling in his upcoming book, "Performing the Nut Museum: Elizabeth Tashjian and the Art of the Double Entendre."
The Times said the book will mark the most recent take on the life of Tashjian, who left no survivors and whose exploits were captured in the aptly titled 2005 documentary, "In a Nutshell: A Portrait of Elizabeth Tashjian."
