Cristina Patterson

Cristina Patterson was born in Madrid, Spain and came to America when she was only a few months old. Hollywood, CA was home until she was 4 then her Mother moved her and her siblings to Topanga Canyon, CA. Surrounded by majestic hills and creative minds, this is where she was raised. Cristina's mother, Raffaelle Butler was the largest influence on her personal and professional life. Her mother is to this day a very talented artist in countless mediums and now a retired makeup artist for films and television. She worked in such films and shows as Doctor Zhivago, Boxcar Bertha, Laugh-In, Happy Day and became Lorne Greene's personal makeup artist. Cristina wanted nothing more than to follow in her mother's footsteps. Cristina has been drawing since she could hold a pencil. She is self-taught and always leaned more towards fantasy art. Always trying different mediums such as watercolor, acrylics, and oil, Cristina found that oil was her favorite to work with. Struggling with an undiagnosed form of dyslexia, Cristina left High School during her Junior year and started attending a small makeup school. At that time she began working as an assist for her Mother on commercials. She soon landed a job on a low budget Roger Corman film, working for Dean and Starr Jones. In 1991, while working with Dean Jones again on a TV series, remake of Land of the Lost, Cristina was introduced to Maurine Wirgler. They quickly became friends and started working together on low budget films. In 1994, Cristina started losing her interest in makeup and began looking for different avenues to pursue that would fill her artistic appetite. In 1995, Cristina was introduced to the world of contact lenses by chance and decided right there on the spot that was her calling, she started working for Professional Visioncare Associates (PVA) the very next day. In 2001 she was asked to become PVA's Coordinator and Promoter and fell headlong into the role. Within months she started missing the artistic side of movie making so Cristina started painting contact lenses. Within the year she was the principal painter and coordinator for PVA and quickly became one of the top contact lens painter's worldwide. In 2011, feeling like it was time for a change, Cristina decided to part ways with PVA to start her own business (Optical Illusions, now known as Eye Ink Fx) painting contact lenses. Cristina has worked on some of the top blockbusters such as "Pirates of the Caribbean" "Maleficent", "Twilight" Saga, "Walking Dead", "Game of Thrones" "Gotham", "Underworld" and "The Hobbit" Besides running a growing business, Cristina continues to paint with a goal of having her own show some time in the near future. She still likes to change her mediums depending on the subject that she is working on and her mood, but knows her true love will always be oil paints.