Cierra Sol’s 11 Angels Studio Is a Love Letter to Art, Women & Healing

 Interview with artist, nail tech and business owner Cierra Sol

Interview and Photos by Anitah Imani
Styling by Dago Payan
Makeup by Dominique
Hair by Hope ChiAnn
Nails by Sequoia Henderson and Cierra Sol 

9.18.25

Nestled into the heart of Grand Avenue sits 11 Angels nail studio, a pink palace nail sanctuary created by artist Cierra Sol. While the space serves as a local Downtown Phoenix destination for getting the manicure of your dreams while simultaneously having the most healing heart-to-heart gossip session of your week, 11 Angels is more than just a nail shop to Cierra - it’s an extension of her longtime devotion to being a practicing visual artist, a way to honor her angels and a means of building legacy. Starting out as a painter, and eventually evolving into a graphic designer and nail artist, Cierra converted her love for art into a business that cultivates community for women. During the first monsoon rainstorm of the season, we sat cozy in her apartment overlooking the Downtown Phoenix skyline and talked all about her upcoming city project, what it’s like running a business centered around women, and how to remain spiritually grounded through it all.

Anitah: So happy to be here! I'm still waiting on the Cierra Sol Podcast. What's up with that? We was talking about [it] a long time ago. Do you still think that's something that you would want to do?

Cierra: I think about it all the time. And I think a lot of my projects end up rolling out like that. I think about them for years, and I kind of plant the seed for years, and then they come out, and it just feels like it'll be so new to everybody else, but it’s low key an old idea. I'm adamant on that. Like, putting out your old ideas.

A: Yes! Okay, so with that in mind, how long do things take to come into fruition for you? How long was 11 Angels an idea to actually being physically manifested as your space?

C: A lot of my work is inspired by love and situations and experiences that I've been through. I was inspired by Phoenix, inspired by coffee and I was inspired by the hair industry, just all of the Cosmo girlies, all the barbers and the nail techs. I was getting my nails done often, and I don't know when it clicked for me. I think I really wanted to do hair, and then I realized they were scientists.

*shared laughs*

C: I'm like, maybe I need something a little bit more my style. And so I was always getting my nails done, and I was like, “Yeah, I think I want to be a nail tech.” And I mean, before that, the vision has always been to own a shop. Has always been to own a space. That's always been something that I think is a forever vision. I was probably a kid thinking of this stuff, “I'll have a store, and it'll have a soda machine”, and the ideas of what it would be changed so much. So I feel like I always wanted a shop. I always wanted a space, but when I went through that experience, of being in the hair world and seeing the barber world, that made me go, “Okay, I kind of can see how I can make something come about from that and attach coffee.” I can attach my art, the design work, marketing I do, and things.

And then yes, women! Yeah, women. When it came into mind, it was like, yes! I need to be around more women. I need my art to be presented for women and the trans, queer, gay community. So that's how it came into fruition. Really just always wanted a space, and then nails came about. And I said I’ll be a nail tech, I went to school three years ago. That was my first time touching nails was my first day of school.

A: Oh, really?

C: Yeah, the first day of school was the first time I learned cuticle application, just moving forward. I never even tried the medium, I just trusted that I loved art so much that it would be just another fun medium, you know what I mean?

A: So as an artist, prior to doing nails, you're primarily a painter, a drawer, a sketcher, a graphic designer. What were you gravitating towards most? In what ways was your art showing up?

C: Before that I always just wanted to create visual work. So I think that first and foremost,  I loved painting. That's like, the core.

A: I’m looking at this beautiful painting, it's just like, it's calling to me. Tell me about that piece.

C: Painting is just my first love and now I’m able to just do it for fun. This piece actually, is really, really, really, really special. As you know, my brother passed away, February on the 12th, and July last year 2024 he was diagnosed terminal. And he just loved creating, like he painted. He and I were painting so much and had our brand going and all of this stuff. So when he got diagnosed terminal, he was sick, and so we all were in one living room all the time, and I was like, I need to do something to up his spirits. And just plopping the easel up and starting a painting is gonna be like, this will be it, right? And so I started painting our land. So this is a view of West Romero and you can see the West Romero sign is actually here. It's got the bullet shot in it and everything, that’s the original.

A: And that's from New Mexico?

C: Yes, so I'm from Taos, New Mexico, West Romero, and that is our land. We have two buses, there's a lot of junk, there's all this stuff, but there's this apricot tree and there's always these beautiful sunsets. And I knew Elijah loved drawing scenery, and so I was like, I'm gonna paint for him. And he loved it. Like, he kept telling his wife, “Look at Cierra. Look at her paint, look at that.” And he'll nitpick me and stuff. I touched it once since he passed away, but I'm just gonna spend my sweet time on this. I'm more of a hard black line painter. I like things that are just bold and with a hard black line, but this is gonna challenge me. Challenge me to be like, try to find the depth and realism and details of paintings that I think he wanted me to get into.Yeah, she just sits there and taunts me.

A: No, it's gorgeous even in the progress stage. I love the energy that I'm getting from it. It's a very beautiful ode to your brother and where you guys are from as well. I wanted to ask you a little bit about your other longer project that you're working on, aside from the nail studio, with the Valley Metro project.

C: So when I moved to Phoenix, I met some muralist homies, and they're like the OGs. Spawk, El Spawk, a lot of people know him. He's also a designer, muralist, creator, and he is at the Grand Art House next to 11 Angels, and that's his original studio space. And he's been like an uncle to me, really, since I moved here eight years ago. He's my mom's homie, he did pin striping on her low rider. Shout out Luci in da low low. He'd been doing these Valley Metro projects and things like that before, and he suggested that I apply. And honestly it was just timing, alignment and the encouragement of everything around it. So I really only had three days to apply for this opportunity. You have to create a small pitch deck, explain yourself and all this stuff. The pitch deck was easy for me, because it's just like, you know, I love doing that stuff, but I wrote a letter, and I honestly just said the meaning of 11 Angels. The loss that I've been through, the reason why I create. And I remember writing that and submitting that, and I only had like 30 minutes left, and I was about to give up. And then a good friend was like, “No, you should try to do this.”

Yeah, I submitted. And honestly months later, they messaged me and said I was a chosen artist. It was an emerging artist opportunity and so now it's honestly such a learning experience. It is my dream to create something for the city that is going to be there forever.  The fact that I got this opportunity, it's kind of like, now, what do I create? And it is like a five year long project, and so there's a lot that we can't disclose because that’s just the way that the extension goes on, there's a lot of city politics that go into it. All I know is that I get to install and curate a piece, and they are guiding me along the way with engineers. I found my own fabricator, and we are creating something very girly-pop. It's gonna be near or around maybe Washington Street. I think around the Arizona Financial Center, but yeah, it's just along that street in that region.  It's been really time consuming all my days off.

A: That’s badass. That's legacy, yeah, that's a legacy project.

C: Yeah, everything that has happened in my lifetime, I need something monumental, and I'm just really grateful for that opportunity. And now I am going to try to find ways to Easter egg my angels in that, in the artwork that I install. When I see it, or my family sees it, or even if a stranger sees it and maybe finds it, like in some way, connected to them, to their people. 

A: Yeah, definitely. I'm sure that whatever you come up with will be perfect, girly-pop and angelic. Kind of going off that a little bit, but very girly-pop and angelic are probably two words that I would choose to visually describe the aesthetic of 11 Angels. And you're obviously a very spiritual girly, and you're a very spiritually grounded person since I've known you. How does that show up in 11 Angel Studios, and how does that add to the intention behind 11 Angels?

C: So Tierra is my prima hermana, and she passed away. And that was the hardest first loss for me. But before that - I was more about my relationship, and the hip hop world and things like that. I really wasn't drawing like that, it was more something that only her and my family who loved me really closely - her and Elijah - were really knowing that I was on that. So she and I had our last visit, like my last time seeing her, which was probably like two or three weeks before. And she told me, “You need to create.” And I'm like, “I know, I know blah blah.”And she's like “No, literally.” She bought me my first Prisma pens, and she's like, “I'm leaving you in the house, I'm actually gonna go to work for the day. And your only thing is to paint me something and draw me something.” And I really, like, got down with the supplies she gave me.

A: What’d she give you?

C: She just got me Prisma pens and paper, like, the good shit. And that was my first time getting the good shit. I always drew with Crayola, or like the regular pens.

A: And how old were you here?

C:  I'm trying to remember, she passed away 11 years this year, and that means I was 19 or 20. So, yeah, that happened. And I made this piece for her, and then three weeks later, this happens. It was like, I could have either went down the rabbit hole, which I have a past of addiction and being in trouble and things like that. It was like I could have gone down that rabbit hole that I've been down before, or I can, you know, do something with this, this talent that I know and represent her. And honestly, I was really feeling her. Like it was like, damn, I could really feel her, you know what I mean? Her voice, I could feel her through the wind, everything. And I knew what she wanted me to do for us and like, represent me.

So yeah, Tierra is girly-pop. Like I've always been androgynous, like this younger version of myself, I was so androgynous, and I was so boyish and I was definitely getting rowdy. I had a very rowdy and gritty upbringing, and so when she passed away, I just remember how stern and how about it, about it, she was. She had her own spot, it was super girly. She had cute clothes, she had eyeliner. She wore cheetah print. She loved pink, she loved glitter. She loved Lana Del Rey. She really put me on. So yeah, Tierra, she was the driving force to all of this. And it's dope, because when I walk in the shop, I feel her.

C: Since then my little sister, Ashley passed away in 2020 - another girly that is strong. You know, Tierra 11 years ago, and Ashley now five years ago, it's like 11 Angels came three years later because it was like, I have to connect with other women. I have to represent these women. Like fuck depending on anybody, let's get us right, and let's be each other's drive. Let's have each other the way we see other people have each other.  I want to be a woman that can help build other women up, because I've seen so much domestic violence. My sister was murdered by a man, you know what I mean, I've seen abuse in my life so much. I know that women are capable now and that we can take the will.

But 11 Angels for me - I always see 11:11 forever. 11 Angels? Yeah, cool. That's cool.

A: You said, “That works, that's got a nice ring to it.”

*shared laughs*

C: It's catchy, and then people want to ask me, and if they'll get to know me, it'll start to see the depth behind these simple things. And I'm just really doing it because, in a sense, I just want to be there for people and especially women, and I want to just create, because it also helps.

A: I feel like you've definitely cultivated a community of women that for one, run your business with you, but also, like, fuel it and fuel the spirit.

C: We be crying in the shop.

A: Yeah! What's the energy like in the shop? What do you love about the energy that you've cultivated in the shop? Or just like, fun shit.

C: They come for my tea.

*shared laughs*

C: If they don't have tea, I have tea. And I feel like I want to create that space where it's like, I'm vulnerable. I have humiliation, so I really like that girlies kind of like that. If you're a regular, we know each other, like we're locked in, and I know everything that's going on, and I got you. I just want to pour into people. I feel like, through all this grief, I've really learned to handle this nervous system. I'm not saying I'm perfect or anything, but I have coping mechanisms. I understand my body. I understand the days when I'm not good, those days are okay too.  I'm taking this life the best I can. And so I think that's what's really nice, is that to share that energy with each other is the most fulfilling part of all this, like guide each other through shit.

A: I've heard some stories, I've heard some stories. We've definitely kii’d.

C: We've had our sessions.

*shared laughs*

C: No, exactly. So, I mean, I'm just here to just hold hands and understand.

A: You have a very, like, mothering spirit to you.

C: I couldn't wait to turn 30, really. So I could be, like, mother. Like, actually mother, I’ve been waiting for this position since I was 15.

*shared laughs*

A: She's in the sexy 30 club.

C: I’m in my Carrie era.

A: Oh, girl, be careful with that. Be careful with that.

*shared laughs*

A: But no, that's beautiful. And you mentioned there that you have been able to figure out what routines work for you, how to regulate your nervous system, but you're involved with so much, and I feel like a lot of people don't really fully understand what that takes to show up as a boss, for real, because that's what you are. And so I wanted your perspective on - what you think it takes, or what you've actually done - what does it take to be that boss for yourself? And I feel like there's also an extra layer there as well. When you're an artist trying to be your own boss, what that journey was like for you, but also what you feel like it takes to be that person.

C: Damn. You just have to utilize your 24 hours. I've always heard, and I heard this from the OG types, that it takes 10,000 hours and 10 years to be an overnight success. If you want to craft something you have to really dedicate your time to it. And a lot of times, people kind of clown you when you choose you. You'll feel like people are like, “Ah, you're boring,” but you have to utilize this 24 hours. So for me, finding that balance where you choose more weekends to stay home and write notes, focus on the next day, your gym routine and all those things. And I'm not saying be perfect, but understanding that you do have to work toward your craft.

Even with nails, I understood that I needed to be doing that every day, repetition, whether it was for free or $25 a set. Just perfecting your craft and also just putting you first. So that's something that I've learned over time. I think that that helps me regulate my days and put goals out there and then put action to those goals. If you're depressed and stuff, but you wrote out your next day on the end of that very bad day, right? If you had a bad day where you just chose to stay in and cry, but you have that moment where “You know what? But tomorrow is going to be a good day, and this is how I'm going to handle it.” You wake up and it's like, you don't feel so bad about yesterday, right? You needed it. And so it’s those kinds of things, being lenient on yourself is so mandatory as well. But I think just getting back up because you feel humiliated. Like, got married on February 2, and we only knew each other for about 2 weeks, you know what I mean? 

A: Only with Cierra y’all!

*shared laughs*

C: Right, hey, listen! You gotta have humiliation, you gotta be willing to just, you know, be like, “Okay, maybe I was going through a lot.” You just got to be able to get back up from a hard situation and just not guilt yourself over it. Like, if you had a goal for that day, but you chose to actually cry or be lazy that day, you can’t guilt yourself for that. You just gotta lowkey do it tomorrow. You'll fit it in. It's all good. That's the part where it's like, if we can be delulu about worrying, why can't we be delulu about it working out?

A: Exactly, oh, I know what you mean. That's my philosophy.

C: So that's it. That's what I think. I think just utilizing your 24 hours, perfecting your craft, and then being easy on yourself on the days that you're not because it's all a part of the process.

A: That's a great way to simplify. It's never that serious, because you're holding yourself to whatever accountability and consistency looks like for you.

But to wrap up the interview, what do you feel like in this moment is the future for 11 Angels?  Growth wise, or even beyond 11 Angels, if there's anything that your artistic insights are looking towards, whether that's more community work organizing, more of what you're already doing, mural work, what's on your wish list?

C: Honestly, anything that grabs my angels, I'm just big on that right now. Like, I'm already thinking of ways me and my brother have created some things together in the past few years, and I have a lot of stuff with me and him, and I just want to slowly roll that out and work hard on each project.  Everybody's gonna know about what I mean, that's kind of my goal. I just want to figure out new ways to represent my angels. And with that, you know, I would hope to expand the girls that we have in the shop, and find new ways that we can be innovative and creative, like podcasts, photo shoots, you know, more. I want to keep putting the angels on the map.

I just want to always create. I want to keep creating. I want to keep representing and helping people get through. Just keep being a solid ass bitch. I've been through a lot of stuff, so I have to just keep being solid.