Morgan Taylor, a Grammy nominee, died at the age of 52. The death of the multimedia artist, who created music and art for children, came after a “brief and sudden illness,” according to a GoFundMe created by his friends. He is survived by his 18-year-old wife, Rachel Loshak, and their children, Harvey and Ridley.
Taylor was best known for his creation of the world of Gustafer Yellowgold, an animated character said to be from the sun. Taylor received a Grammy nomination for Best Children’s Album for 2015’s Gustafer Yellowgold’s Dark Pie Concerns CD/DVD.
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In an interview with Dayton in 2015, Taylor said he wanted to be a comic artist when he was younger and wanted to move to New York City to become an illustrator. After his rock group broke up in 2003, his wife suggested he start a children’s book project.
“One of my jobs when I worked at Gem City Records was to write the new releases on the board, and I would often draw a funny cartoon,” he said of the birth of Gustafer Yellowgold. “I drew this yellow, cat-faced guy, and that basically became Gustafer. Once I started writing the stories, we started showing them to people and people were hooked right away. We printed copies, tied them together at home with spray glue and twine, and made 20 copies of the book and passed them around.”
A memorial service for Taylor will be held on August 18 in Dayton, Ohio. His legacy for Legacy gave insight into some of the things the artist was known for in his day-to-day life.
“Morgan was unbeatable in Pictionary and Name That Tune. He was a lover of hot sauce and funyuns and had a weakness for puns, which he often wrote, illustrated and shared,” the obituary reads. “Morgan was truly the best father Harvey and Ridley could have wished for. He will be missed terribly by all who knew him.”
Check out one of Morgan Taylor’s animations below.