Mural to honor late Washougal city employee and her art

After Washougal artist Suzanne Grover died from lung cancer in May 2023 at the age of 53, Janice Ferguson wanted to do something to honor her longtime friend’s contributions to Washougal as an artist and longtime city employee. “With all the new people moving in, her name will get lost, and I didn’t want it to get lost,” Ferguson said of Grover. “I didn’t want her to just fall by the wayside.” Ferguson sits on the board of directors for the Washougal Arts and Culture Association, a nonprofit group co-founded by Grover. To honor the late Washougal artist, WACA is fundraising for a mural based on Grover’s artwork to be painted on a barn at Washougal’s Hartwood Park later this year. Washougal artist Travis London will paint the 4-foot-by-16-foot mural of a horse based not only on one of Grover’s paintings but also meant to be “a real likeness to the horse that Suzanne rode all the time,” according to Ferguson. Grover, who worked for the city of Washougal for nearly 25 years beginning in 1996, led the city’s efforts to turn Hartwood Park into a destination park with a barnyard theme that included a tractor climber, play chicken coop and large red barn. “These custom components make this playground very unique and from afar. You may mistake it for an actual barn,” PlayCreation, a Burien playground equipment manufacturer, stated on its website. Ferguson, a former member of the Washougal parks commission and the Clark County Arts Council, said the Hartwood Park transformation, completed in 2018, was one of Grover’s favorite projects during her time with the city. “I think that was because of her family background,” Ferguson said of Grover. “They had acreage in the Columbia Gorge, and she was a real outdoorsy person.” Ferguson and members of Grover’s family selected three pieces of Grover’s artwork as possibilities for the mural and presented them to the city of Washougal’s arts commission and parks board, as well as London. Everybody agreed that Grover’s horse painting was the best choice. “We decided that, since the barn faces the playground area, that was the perfect place to put the mural because it looked like the horse was looking out of the barn,” Ferguson said. “It felt like the perfect place because, when I go up there, the kids are playing on the metal corn stalks, they’re riding the tractor, and I’m sure it just put a smile on her face to see (the park) get used.” Grover worked for the city of Washougal from 1996 to 2020, starting out as a maintenance worker, then moving into a building inspector role in 2004. She was named the city’s manager of parks and facilities in 2008. During her tenure as a city employee, she supported several public art installations, including the city’s “Seaman,” “Forever Faithful” and “Princess White Wing.” She also played a big role in bringing four regional artists, collectively known as Women Who Weld, to town in 2018, to create the four-part “Earth, Wind, Fire and Water” sculpture series. She was instrumental in the facilitation of the student-created “Let’s Play Ball” artwork at the Hathaway Park shed; “Migration,” a metal sculpture installation mounted on the outside of Washougal City Hall; and “Tina the Fish,” a student mural on the wall under Washougal’s 15th Street overpass. “You can’t walk the art tour in Washougal without seeing her,” Ferguson said of Grover’s influence. “It’s impossible.” Art also played a huge role in Grover’s personal life. She was known for her work as a multimedia artist, specializing in pastel, acrylic and watercolor mediums, and animals played a starring role in Grover’s art. “I love the feeling of bringing a pet’s life to paper with chalk,” Grover told The Post-Record in 2022. “It’s really been great to refine that to a level of realism where people look at (my art) and do a double-take or triple-take to see if it’s a photograph or not. That’s a compliment.” Ferguson said that Grover’s greatest strength was, perhaps, her ability to make others feel valued. “She made people feel comfortable and important,” Ferguson said. “She was so easy to work with. When she came up with a project she wanted to do, people would just automatically say, ‘I want to help you do it.’ She was so quiet and soft spoken, but she also had this streak in her for mischief.” WACA President and Washougal city Councilor Molly Coston told The Post-Record in 2023 that “a little bit of magic went out of the world” when Grover died. “She was very much (invested) in building a community around parks and art and bringing Washougal together,” WACA co-founder Joyce Lindsay told the Post-Record in 2023. Ferguson said she hopes the mural will be completed by Grover’s birthday month in October. She added that WACA has already collected $1,500 in donations, almost halfway to its goal of $4,000. To donate to the efforts or learn more, visit washougalarts.org/donate-to-our-current-project-grover-mural. Doug Flanagan: 360-735-4669; doug.flanagan@columbian.com

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