YOU HAVE SEEN HER WORK. NOW MEET THE ARTIST.
Jennifer Keith: Bernal Heights’ Artist in Residence
The woman behind the iconic Coyote posters on Cortland Avenue — and so much more
If you’ve walked down Cortland Avenue lately, you’ve already met Jennifer Keith’s work — you just may not have known her name. The howling coyote that gazes down from banners and posters along the commercial strip? That’s hers. The whimsical, warmly drawn neighborhood scenes that capture Bernal Heights with a kind of knowing affection? Also hers. Jennifer has been weaving her art into the fabric of this neighborhood for over three decades, one brushstroke at a time.
Thirty-Three Years and Counting
Jennifer arrived in Bernal Heights in 1991 and never looked back. “Bernal is just a more interesting neighborhood for branding,” she says with a laugh, giving a gentle nod to nearby Noe Valley, which she concedes has better shopping. But Bernal, with its hills and its hawks and its fiercely independent character, is where her creative heart lives.
Jennifer runs Sheridan Keith Design and Photography alongside her sister, a graphic design business that has built a client roster most designers only dream of: Willie Brown, Gavin Newsom, London Breed, Daniel Lurie, Kamala Harris, and a constellation of San Francisco nonprofits. Over 30 years in the business, she has helped shape how this city presents itself to the world.
Enter UFO Sisters
Alongside her design work, Jennifer’s creative energy increasingly flows into UFO Sisters, her art business, and in many ways her truest personal expression. The name is playful, the work is serious, and the origin story is quintessentially Bernal: it grew out of neighborhood strolls, the kind of wandering that sharpens your eye for what’s beautiful, strange, and worth capturing about a place.
Jennifer describes her style as “whimsical but realistic”, a phrase that perfectly captures the tension at the heart of her best work. The coyote, her signature icon, is rendered with enough realism to feel wild and alive, yet carries an expressive quality that makes it feel like a neighbor, not a threat. It’s no coincidence that city officials eventually pointed to the Howling Coyote as her brand. The image had already done that work on its own.
From Strolls to Street Banners
Jennifer’s deep involvement in neighborhood life began in earnest with the Bernal Business and Arts Association. She started creating posters for the BBAA and participating in the Earth Day Stroll — events that gave her art a community context and gave the community a visual identity. Those early collaborations planted seeds that are still blooming: she’s currently working with BBAA’s Laurie Kanes on a table tent project, continuing a creative partnership rooted in mutual investment in the neighborhood’s character.
The banners now hanging along Cortland, featuring her coyote designs, represent a recent success that visibly moved her when they went up. “I feel proud when I see my art displayed around Bernal,” she says simply. There is nothing performative about it. After 30-plus years, the feeling of seeing your work become part of a neighborhood’s visual language is still something.
Earth Day Stroll 2026
Beyond the Hill
As rooted in Bernal as she is, Jennifer is actively working to expand her artistic reach across San Francisco. She’s developing a UFO series that spans multiple neighborhoods, a project that lets her apply the same attentive, affectionate eye she’s trained on Bernal to the city’s broader landscape. She’s also at work on an Earth Day poster and exploring a crow-themed piece, birds being a recurring muse.
There’s also a series she calls “Resistance”, political art she creates as a form of activism. “I express my views through images rather than traditional political activities,” she explains. In a neighborhood with a long tradition of progressive politics and hand-lettered protest signs, it fits right in.
Getting people to cross the hill remains a genuine challenge. Jennifer jokes that a gondola might be the answer, but her work is finding audiences beyond Bernal’s boundaries, at markets and shows across the city.
The Jumping Fleas
Art isn’t Jennifer’s only creative outlet. She’s a founding member of the Jumping Fleas, a local ukulele club that meets every other Thursday evening at Pinhole Coffee. What started small has grown to around 25 regular members, and recently celebrated its two-year anniversary with a performance at the Community Music Center.
Jennifer deliberately chose the ukulele; it suited her, but music has a way of pulling you in multiple directions. She’s also recently returned to the clarinet, playing in a small old-timey band. The two instruments, one breezy and bright, one reedy and soulful, feel like two sides of the same creative personality.
Jennifer Keith’s work is available through UFO Sisters. You can find her prints, posters, and neighborhood art at local markets and community events throughout the year, and, of course, looking down at you from banners on Cortland Avenue.
San Francisco Family Friendly Calendar
Mike Doherty serves as Chief Experience Officer at Greening Projects, a nonprofit organization dedicated to transforming underutilized urban spaces into vibrant green areas
