Transcript :
Plumbing work is very creative you have to design all the time the way you get around the pipe

It’s like doing exercise all day long. It’s physical work you’re moving all over, tightening pipes, loosen pipes, welding pipes.

When I was 16 years old, she was 15 years old. She was pregnant. My ex father in law was a plumber, so no choice I have to go to work with him as a punishment.

I’m a plumber.

Then, an artist.

I started first with a lamp.

Just was a moment that I realized that I could do that.

Sometime I change thing like three, four times and I still don’t like it. And then in the end I do a tiny moment and I say, whoa, that’s the way. Once I feel happy, I say this is the one.

I don’t feel connected to the world when I make things, I don’t feel connected to the world. I feel connected to myself and to the thing that I am making.

Since I was a little kid I was always trying to make something. I grew up in a really rough and poor neighborhood, on the suburbs of Buenos Aires. You have to create something to learn to have fun. Back then in Argentina was a huge crash. I decided to go away. My daughter, I didn’t see her for about eight years. Was a huge trauma that I still have it because I miss all those years. No way to get them back.

It’s weird, it’s weird to be a father again.

I see life dark, but I trying to be positive.

Art is what will save us.

more info:
As a plumber, Cristian Torres struggles with flooding toilets, leaking faucets and dripping pipes. But the tools of his trade have transformed from drudgery to artistry when Torres uses them to create sculptures, paintings and lamps.

Torres has been a plumber since he was a teenager. He now lives in Long Island City and left his home country during economic crisis in 2000. The Argentine said he flipped a coin to decide whether to travel to the United States or Spain. The coin toss set him toward Miami, where he later boarded a bus to Harlem with only $300 in his pocket. Torres said he often worked long hours for little pay as a plumber, alongside immigrants from other countries. They would communicate with tools and gestures to get the job done. Because of his immigration status, Torres was unable to return to Argentina until eight years after leaving. In that time, his 10-year-old daughter became a young woman, his mother grew old and his father passed away. He spent time in Spain before returning to New York City.

He has been a tinkerer since his young days in the poorer suburbs of Buenos Aires, where he and his siblings would fashion toys, like yo-yos, out of wood. About seven years ago, he began making art again. Now Torres is taking a break from working with companies and is a freelance plumber so he can focus on his art.

You can learn more about Torres on his website, plumbingart.com.