Christian Mendoza aka EDEC, Founder of INK HEADS, great artist and great friend to many.
I met Chris when I was about 17 years old in downtown Miami. He walked into Pucci’s pizza looking for me during my high school lunch break. I didn’t know who he was, but I was freaked out/ intimated of him because here’s this huge New York looking guy who is older than me by 9 or 10 years / He was holding my zine - OpenZine - and he appeared to be aggressively looking for me. He was trying to find me because he wanted to give me pictures of graffiti that his crew did.
We were publishing 2 page spreads of some graffiti for the last several issues of OpenZine. But, we really did not have a real plug in until that moment. It was a dream because Ink Heads was my favorite graffiti crew. I was a fan, I myself never did graffiti but was an admirer of it. That’s pretty much how our friendship started.
Every other month I would meet up with him and he would give me graffiti photos and we would publish them in our zine. This was before the Internet stuff and it was just mind blowing the sort of photos and access he was giving to us.
Christian Aaron Mendoza aka EDEC, Founder of INK HEADS, great artist and great friend to many.
Above photos by Alec Heggen
I was studying painting in high school at New World School of the Arts and I would find him at the Miami Dade Public library looking over ancient religious texts and books on Egyptian hieroglyphics. He was very talkative and friendly. He always had stories to share if you were ready to listen.
Overtime I would run into him at central moments of life. He would always show support when I would have an exhibit in places like New York or other big cities. He was a champion of so many creative people. There was no one like him. I’m truly blessed and thankful I was able to spend time with him last Sept in Iowa at Art Farm Iowa where I had an exhibit and he was about to paint a beautiful piece in a mural garden surrounded by corn fields.
One of my last beautiful memories of him was when we were throwing a ball around in Northwood, Iowa and talking about baseball and there was an absolutely stunning rainbow behind us and he said we were in the “field of dreams.” It was a simple and radiant moment in time - a moment I like to call heaven on earth.
Chris is truly in heaven now and he is living better than any of us. He will be missed in this life and he will remain in our hearts forever because forever is heaven my friend. Rest and Live Forever Chris AKA EDEC ! Photo by Dalluge Photography
Rest in Peace Christian Aaron Mendoza - EDEC
KikiValdes 
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