Burns received a BA Honours in fine arts (1988) from the University of Waterloo, Ontario, attended Gerrit Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam where he participated in independent graduate level studies (1991 / 1992), and he earned an MFA in painting (1995) from the University of Alberta. He is a recipient of the J.B. Taylor Award of Excellence in Art from the Medici Foundation and of several other scholarships and grants as well. Burns has travelled extensively in Europe, Israel and Egypt and has studied in Paris and Burgundy, France and in Amsterdam. His works are held in public and private collections in Canada and Japan.

Burns paints landscapes but not as might be expected. His work explores metaphors for human involvement in natural systems, and the landscapes he reflects are his impressions of microbiological environments. He combines real and imagined elements and draws his imagery from landscapes, microscopy, aerial photography and resource materials from the environmental and health sciences and biology. Burns’ work has been presented in exhibitions across Canada, and he has been artist in residence in the Medical Humanities Program at Dalhousie University in Halifax and has held the Pouch Cove Foundation Residency in Newfoundland. He is (2014) an Associate Professor in the Department of Fine Arts at Mount Allison University in Sackville, New Brunswick.