Artists Cat Rocketship and Dani Awesome have created some big, head-turning work together: massive rainbow murals in the East Village and Historic Valley Junction; human-sized Iowa wildlife painted along a bike trail in West Des Moines; pop-up art markets and a pair of Etsy shops with over 7,000 sales of original prints, stickers, jewelry and more.
Even when their work is small, it’s loud and clear. Cat’s whimsical illustrations, often made in collaboration with Dani, feature text like “No borders, no walls,” “Support your local smut peddler,” “Don’t let the cats out or the cops in” and “Have the courage to be disliked.”
Their rich creative partnership grew out of a friendship — one tested by a major trauma and a Dungeons and Dragons-induced personal awakening. Eventually, the pair discovered their chemistry extended beyond the art.
In 2009, Cat Rocketship was hit by a car while riding a moped.
“I had a helmet on (which probably saved my life), but I still ended up with a traumatic brain injury, several broken bones, and PTSD,” they shared. “For nearly 10 years afterward, my memory was severely affected.”
“Cat and I met in 2006 and were fast friends,” said Dani Ausen, a jewelry artist under the name Dani Awesome. “I remember well when Cat was injured. It was a very scary time, and we’re so lucky that Cat pulled through it.”
Recovery was arduous, Cat said. “I’d often start a sentence and forget how it began before I could finish it. Reading, which had been a huge part of my life, became nearly impossible; I couldn’t get through a page. I also dealt with intense chronic pain and anxiety. I didn’t know if things would ever improve. In short: it sucked.”
Desperate for distraction, Cat explored meditation, YouTube yoga tutorials and, of course, art. They established Market Day, a pop-up opportunity for Des Moines-area artists to network and sell their work, and an alternative to Black Friday. In addition, Cat was running monthly figure-drawing nights, critiques and shows.
“I don’t think anyone knew how deeply messed up I was, but being part of a creative community gave me a reason to keep going,” they said. “And I had my own art to make. I believed so strongly in what I had to say in my work that it quite literally gave me something to live for.”
Dani stepped up to co-direct Market Day in 2010, handling the “fiddly bits” like scheduling and budgets while Cat executed the vision. To this day, Dani serves as a sort of art director for the Cat Rocketship brand. “I make sure that the art that Cat makes gets to the public,” she said.
However, “There was a frustrating period in which I didn’t always understand that Cat’s forgetfulness and difficulty to contact was due to memory loss.”
“I remember one day, many years down the road, Cat explained their memory loss to me in this way: They described a library, but the books were not on the shelves, rather laying on the floor or in boxes. They said that trying to find a memory was like digging through the boxes, but my help would often lead them to the correct box, enabling them to recall the memory.”
Very gradually, Cat got better.
“Brains are amazing,” Cat said. “Around year seven, I started noticing real changes: I felt sharper, more capable. When I finally got access to good insurance (and with it, physical therapy), the chronic pain eased. That helped my brain, too — it turns out pain is incredibly loud.
“I credit my recovery to a few things. I had some really supportive people in my life, including Dani, who was with me through it all (and made me milkshakes when my jaw was wired shut). We weren’t together at the time — we were both dating other people — but she showed up in big ways.”
In the 2010s, Cat managed to rock Dani’s world in a big way.
Dani and her husband hosted a Dungeons and Dragons group with their friends, including Cat. Dani played as a half-devil woman named Yara, Cat a barbarian called Malkin. Their characters began a romance in the game, and the pair exchanged love letters as part of the roleplay.
The relationship felt strangely real to Dani. She began to discover her queer identity, and in the process, amicably ended her marriage. Her friend and business partner Cat was there to support her, and sure enough, the two forged a love “every bit as beautiful and exciting today as it was in those first pages we wrote together,” Dani shared as part of an online storytelling series in 2020.
The two married in 2021, after five years of dating and 15 years of friendship. Dani said they’ve continued growing as creative partners, too. “I handle the fine points, Cat has the big ideas. We both put our unique creative stamp on all of our projects.”
Cat and Dani are behind the Pride Corners murals in the East Village, splashed around the intersection of East Fifth and Grand Avenue. The City of Des Moines invited them back this year to refurbish the pieces.
“Last year we painted the four corners for the first time, and this year, we’re repainting and redesigning those corners,” Dani said.
“It’s pretty exciting that we not only get to do it again,” added Cat, “but that the first pilot project in the city, which has been done in so many other cities, is one that welcomes people into the neighborhood but also puts the stamp on the East Village and Des Moines as a space for LGBTQ people.”
The businesses surrounding the murals — Raygun, Nightingale, Ernie’s Boondock and Reclaimed — are all supportive, as well as nearby gay bars Buddy’s Corral, The Garden and the historic Blazing Saddle.
Dani gave “the lion’s share of praise for making this happen” to Capital City Pride and executive director Wes Mullins, who tackled many of the logistics.
“This is a culmination of years of work of the businesses in the East Village and the Blazing Saddle and the community of LGBTQI+ people in Des Moines working towards this project. It’s such an honor that Cat and I are the ones that get to put it down. We were handed the torch at the very end with our favorite instruction: go be creative.”
Always seeking new ways to integrate with the public, Cat will debut their latest solo exhibition this August in the coveted coffee house gallery of Zanzibar’s Coffee Adventure. Zanzibar’s owner Julie McGuire has featured a new local artist in her business each month for decades.
Cat also has some “cozy folk art inspired, but very 21st century inspired watercolor pieces” in the works.
“I’m returning to craft shows,” they said. “These feel like modest offerings. They’re little projects that I’m excited to be putting all my focus into this year. The last couple of years, we’ve been doing murals, all spring, all summer. Now I will be able to sit down and paint a little bit each day, and by the end of the summer, I’ll have a nice little crop of new work to show at the Northside Market in Oak Park, Valley Junction Pride and Little Book.”
Through Dani Awesome, founded in 2009, Dani sells “modern magical jewelry for the stylish witch on the go” via Etsy, at craft fairs and wholesale to clients. She’s a regular participant in the Northside Market. You can find her booth next to Cat’s.
This article was originally published in Little Village’s June 2025 issue.
