Growing up in Greenville, Burford became fascinated with the carnivals and circuses booked to perform in the community by his father, who directed the local YMCA.

[1] In 1941 Burford completed a commission for the Treasury Department's Section of Painting and Sculpture, a mural for the U.S. post office in Houston, Mississippi.

[1] Burford's paintings and prints[4] of soldiers, athletes, jazz musicians, factory workers and circus people attracted a wide following.

[1] A well-known artist in the Midwest, Burford exhibited widely and received many honors and awards,[5] including a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1960[6] and a grant from the National Academy of Arts and Letters in 1967.

Motifs drawn from carnival and circus life, from popular culture and nostalgic glimpses of forgotten wars, are transformed into graphic symbols of a notable complexity.