DECORATION AS VOCATION
An Interview with David Riccio on the Transformation of San Joselito Chapel
By Emilie Haertsch, Senior Communications Manager
In
February 2026, Partners spoke with David Riccio of Canning Liturgical Arts about his experience decorating the San Joselito Chapel on the campus of St. Joseph’ s Church in Norwalk, Connecticut. The project won a Restoration Honor in the 2024 Faith & Form Awards, and also proved personally meaningful for Riccio and his family. This interview has been condensed and edited for length and clarity.
Emilie Haertsch: Please tell me about your background. New board member David Riccio: As a tradesman, I specialize in traditional decorative painting and ornamental plaster. In the United Kingdom and traditionally they call us“ church decorators.” I’ ve been working in the field for 30 years in these traditional methods, modelled after a UK apprenticeship and craftsmanship program that the founder of our company completed in England. Early in my career, I completed 6,000 hours of training for painting alone, and then I did plaster as well. In 2015, I established Canning Liturgical Arts to bring traditional craftsmanship back to churches.
Partners board member David Riccio of Canning Liturgical Arts.
EH: Why is craftsmanship important, in your view? DR: Craftsmanship is the combination of the senses, abilities, and training to produce tangible embellishment to architecture. It’ s the passing of one person’ s training and skills to future generations to create timeless, lasting beauty. When combined with sacred places, it’ s the ultimate achievement. We get to honor original craftsmanship in historic churches, or, when beautifying a church, we get to create something new based on a millennium’ s worth of tradition and principles.
22 SACRED PLACES • SUMMER 2023