She participated in the New Deal's Section of Painting and Sculpture under the Treasury Department, creating the post office mural for Mebane, North Carolina, and a watercolor which was held at Fort Stanton in New Mexico.

[1] Beginning her career as a commercial artist, Casey worked in 1928 and 1929, before deciding to continue her education with Charles Law Watkins at the Phillips Memorial Gallery School in 1931.

[1][5] Between 1934 and 1941, a group of artists, including the Gates, Mitchell Jamieson and Prentiss Taylor began a series of trips as part of a commission by the Treasury Department to the U.S. Virgin Islands.

The original design had planned a night scene of workers in a curing barn, but in the final painting, the portrayal is depicted during daylight hours.

The mural carries the central theme of family and shows a man and a young boy, walking in tandem to work on the tobacco farm.

[4] Over the same decade, Gates wrote articles on art for publications, such as The Washington Spectator, and had a regular column in the journal Right Angle, of the American University, called "The People vs.