About the Artist

(1924-1972) Beverly Jane Fisher, known as Poko Petek, was born in Osawatomie, Kansas in 1924. 

Because her mother died when Beverly was four years old, she was raised by an uncle and aunt. She finished her high school education in Los Angeles and took several college courses. In 1945, she returned to Kansas, obtained employment as a typist in Kansas City. She moved to  Alaska in 1947 with the Corps of Engineers. In 1949, she returned to Los Angeles, married sculptor Frank Petek and moved to Phoenix, deciding during that time to pursue a career as an artist. 

Poko Petek often traveled to northern Arizona and New Mexico, where she became intrigued by the Native American people and their ceremonies. Against tribal law to photograph or sketch them from life, Poko Petek painted her impressions of the ceremonies from memory. 

Petek illustrated the cover of Grolier’s 1969 Science Yearbook. Her paintings have been featured in Arizona Highways Magazine and other art publications. Her work was in the collection of Senator Barry Goldwater and the Valley National Bank in Phoenix.