Artist Returns to Brandon Twp. Library for Second Round of Mural-Making
(Lara Mossa, Sept. 14, 2026)
BRANDON TOWNSHIP, MI – Artist Chelsea Hensbergen of Washington Township has done 50 or 60 murals professionally throughout the area, including her latest at Brandon Township Public Library.
In 2024, she painted a fantasy forest scene in the youth department at the library at 304 South St. in Ortonville. She did a bear and moose scene in the play room and more recently has adorned the children’s bathroom walls with whimsical skunks and roses. That project lasted two days in August.
“They came to me with the idea,” she said, explaining that sometimes clients have a specific idea of what they want, 
while others give her total creative liberty. Most of her murals are freehand done with a rough sketch or chalk outline. For large public walls, she uses what’s called a doodle grid, she said, and sometimes she uses a projector or headset.
Her favorite part about painting is “the freedom of it and the expression,” she said, adding that she puts on an audio book or music and lets her hands do the work.
“It’s another way I can give back to the community,” she said. “It just adds more life to a space rather than being a blank wall…There’s a lot of healing power in color.”
A former massage therapist, Hensbergen has been painting murals full-time through her company Earth and Ether Art for two years. Describing herself as self-taught, she took some classes in photography and advertising at the College for Creative Studies, before leaving to become a message therapist through Irene’s Myomassology Institute. She did both at the same time for four years before striking it out on her own as a muralist.
Currently, she is working for Bridges Spectrum Therapy in Clinton Township doing different murals for them including an under the sea scene, a fantasy forest and a 50s style diner with animals instead of people. Her fantasy forest scenes, which she is known for, include fairies, mushrooms, castles and dragons as well as other storybook elements.
Other paces to find Hensbergen’s work include Downtown Rochester, Novi Town Center, Voyage Martial Arts in St. Clair Shores, Tri-County Massage in Clinton Township and more.
Besides the Detroit area, she has done work in Maryland and Traverse City and would like to do more travel. Also, she would like to work with children’s hospitals or senior memory care facilities.
To get more information, go to her website www.earthandetherart.org.
