Remember Clif Major’s studio at Douglas and Hillside? His granddaughter is making new art there

As a child, Illene Major would run around the music store and venue that her late grandfather, Clif Major, had for four decades at Douglas and Hillside.

“I kind of grew up there in a way,” she said of C Major Guitars & Banjo.

She said she never expected that one day she would be working out of the space in a different business.

“I’m turning that same space into a place for a new kind of art: nails,” Major said.

“It feels like a full-circle moment — honoring my roots while building something of my own. The energy of the place is still there, and I’m proud to bring it back to life in a new way.”

In an interview that was partly over the phone and partly through text and e-mail, Major explained.

She said she had been working at the Matte Haus and learned a lot about nails there. She was looking for a new opportunity when she decided to join Melissa Alvarez at her Terra Skin Studio, which is where C Major once was.

Alvarez’s business offers aesthetic treatments, but she didn’t offer nail care until Major came along.

“I special in structured gel manicures,” Major said.

She said that means she works with natural nails only and helps get them healthy and maintain them.

Major works under Nails by Illene.

She said she likes to believe that her grandfather had a hand in this move.

“I think that in a way this is him kind of, like, guiding me,” she said.

She said Clif Major “was a musician and an artist in his own right,” and she said she sees “my work as continuing his legacy. I may have chosen a different medium, but the creative spirit runs deep in both of us.”