Tom Burns is a multi-disciplinary creative whose career bridges the worlds of visual art and literature. An accomplished abstract painter, Burns works primarily in oil on large canvases, building multiple layers of texture and color to evoke depth, history, and emotion. His paintings have been recognized for their ability to capture the invisible weight of memory and time, qualities that echo throughout his storytelling as well. As the former publisher of ARTWORKS Magazine, he developed a sharp eye for both the creative process and the cultural forces that shape art and artists. In 2025, Burns makes his literary debut with Under Cover Up, a bold and emotionally charged novel that explores love, secrecy, and identity against the high-stakes backdrop of East Coast finance and organized crime. Inspired in part by a real-life relationship, the novel follows the romance between Dashiell Ledger, the son of the FBI’s Boston Field Office Director, and Marco Morelli, the magnetic heir to a traditional Italian-American family with whispered ties to the mafia. With equal parts intrigue and intimacy, the story delves into what it means to risk everything for love when the world is watching. Burns is already at work on his second novel, Lost in L.A., which draws inspiration from the intersection of his art world and the film industry. Like his debut, it combines emotional honesty with cultural commentary, continuing his exploration of the complex ways personal and professional worlds collide. When not writing, Burns can be found painting in his Palm Springs studio, where the desert light and modernist landscapes inspire both his canvases and his prose. Splitting his time between the disciplines of painting and writing, he has built a creative practice that is both layered and expansive, each medium informing the other.