 Beverly Jane Petek is primarily known as Poko Petek
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An example of work by Beverly Jane Petek
Artwork images are copyright of the artist or assignee
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This biography from the Archives of AskART:
|  Beverly Petek, known as Poko Petek, became a respected painter of Southwestern Native American sacred tribal ceremonies. Her work has appeared in Arizona Highways Magazine (1972) and on the cover of a Grolier publication, The Science Yearbook (1969) and other art publications.
Invited to Southwestern Indian ceremonial dances, she could not photograph them, so she sketched the "snake dances" and "rain dances" from memory.
Petek lived in Phoenix, Arizona and traveled to Hopi and Navajo reservations in Arizona and New Mexico. Her love and tolerance for all spiritual beliefs inspired the Founder of the PeaceClinic.
Written and submitted August 2004 by Fran Elliott, Sedona, Arizona
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The daughter of Lewis and Effie Fisher, Beverly Jane Petek was born in Osawatomie, Kansas and was raised there by an uncle and aunt because her mother died when Beverly was four years old. As a youngster, she also visited her father, who was a carpenter, in Oklahoma and Freeport, Texas. She lived briefly in Newport, Oregon and Los Angeles, where she finished her high school education and took several college courses. In 1945, she worked as a typist in Kansas City, and in 1947 was in Alaska with the Corps of Engineers. She returned to Los Angeles in 1949, and that year married sculptor Frank Petek. The couple settled in Phoenix, Arizona.
In her 20s, she was determined to become an artist and much inspired by the Native Americans of Arizona and New Mexico. She traveled often to the reservations, making sure that her memory was correct because it was a violation of tribal rules to sketch from life. Among her titles were "Zuni Reflections", which won a prize at the 1958 State Fair; "Corn Dance"; "Navajo Card Games"; "Clowns at Taos Pueblo"; and "Snake Dance of the Hopi".
Her work is in the collection of the Valley National Bank in Phoenix.
Source:
Phil Kovinick and Marian Yoshiki Kovinick, An Encyclopedia of Women Artists of the American West |
This biography from the Archives of AskART:
|  Born Osawatomie, Apr. 26, 1924; died Phoenix, AZ, Mar. 9, 1972. Painter. Primarily lived in the Osawatomie area while growing up and then worked in Kansas City as a typist in 1944. Settled in Phoenix and became an artist known for her portraits of Native Americans. Her work appeared in Arizona Highways Magazine (1972) and on the cover of the Science Yearbook (1969) and other art publications. Invited to ceremonial dances, she could not photograph them so she 169 sketched the "snake dances" and "rain dances" from memory. Petek traveled to Hopi and Navajo reservations in Arizona and New Mexico. | Source:
SOURCES:
Susan Craig, "Biographical Dictionary of Kansas Artists (active before 1945)"
Kovinick, Phil and Marian Yoshiki-Kovinick. An Encyclopedia of Women Artists of the American West. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1998.; AskArt, www.askart.com, accessed Jan. 15, 2006. | | This and over 1,750 other biographies can be found in Biographical Dictionary of Kansas Artists (active before 1945) compiled by Susan V. Craig, Art & Architecture Librarian at University of Kansas. |
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