About the Firekeeper

Hello... I'm J. Ell Nightfall.

Many people still know me as Jessie-Lee, and both names belong to me. One belongs to the everyday world. The other found me somewhere along winding paths of stories, photography, quiet forests, and late-night cups of coffee.

I'm the Firekeeper here at Lunar Grove Studio.

This place has grown over many years and, like most living things, it has changed shape more than once. What began as photography slowly welcomed writing, education, nature, conversation, and a healthy appreciation for all things beautifully strange.  

Eventually, I stopped trying to separate those pieces. It became important to build a place where they could simply exist together. 

Most places are built around one thing. This one is built around curiosity. The world here is only as vast as my ever-curious mind, and I've long since stopped asking it to stay in one lane. Stories become photographs. Photographs become paintings. Questions become magazines. Wander long enough and you'll probably discover something neither of us expected to find. 

The Campfire is that place.

 A place to wander.
A place to create.
A place to return to. 

It is where stories are shared. Where photographs become memories. Where magazines feel like home. Where questions are welcomed more than certainty. Where creativity, curiosity, and a little everyday magic all find room to sit beside one another.

I write fantasy, poetry, reflections, and the occasional thought that appears at two in the morning demanding to be written down before it disappears forever.

The Campfire is where all of those paths meet.

Photography remains one of the deep loves of my work. Whether creating fantasy portraits, empowerment sessions, or quietly wandering through Nova Scotia with a camera in hand, I am always looking for the moments most people walk past without noticing. The flower growing from a ditch. The crooked mushroom after the rain. The expression someone makes when they finally forget the camera is there. My art is dark and artful, but the strongest thing I hear consistently is "It tells a story."

Education still has a home here as well. Through Cognatus Spiritus Paganus Academy, I create resources inspired by years of homeschooling my four wonderfully chaotic children.

Learning, to me, has never belonged inside four walls. It belongs around kitchen tables, in forests, beside campfires, and inside conversations that begin with "I wonder..."

I have also created learning companions exploring moon phases, celestial rhythms, shadow work, and learning to trust your own inner voice.

Magic has always lived quietly beneath everything I create. The kind that notices changing seasons, meaningful rituals, tiny moments of wonder, and the stories we tell ourselves while trying to understand the world around us.  Witchcraft holds a special place in my life. It is one of the ways I stay connected to the world around me. 

Whether you found me through a photograph, a poem, a book, a magazine, a homeschooling resource, or because the internet somehow led you here after midnight...

I'm glad you arrived.

Pull up a log.

Stay as long as you'd like.

The fire is already burning.

• Coffee is less of a beverage and more of a personality trait.

• I write best after midnight, when the world finally gets quiet.

• I photograph flowers growing in ditches with the same enthusiasm most people reserve for celebrities.

• Horror movies, thunderstorms, old forests, and bonfires all feel like home.

• I make up songs about completely ordinary tasks, and yes... they're terrible.

• My cats firmly believe they manage this establishment.

• I believe curiosity is more important than certainty.

• I think everyone deserves somewhere they can arrive exactly as they are.