Goth's portraits have featured several Hoosier notables, including James Whitcomb Riley, John T. McCutcheon, Paul V. McNutt, and Will H. Hays, as well as fellow artists, family members, and neighbors in Brown County.

[10] Otto Stark, her father's cousin, was head of the art department and a member of the Hoosier Group of American Impressionist painters.

[11] With additional scholarships, part-time employment, and financial support from her sister, Goth continued her studies at the Art Students League for ten years.

[4] In addition to DuMond, Goth also studied under the direction of William Merritt Chase, Robert Aiken, George Bridgman, and F. Luis Mora while she was living in New York.

[8][17][18] Goth returned to Indianapolis in 1919 to begin her career as a portrait painter; Cariani left the Art League in 1917 to enlist in the military.

During World War I he served in the American Expeditionary Forces, Twenty-eighth Infantry Division, 103rd Trench Mortar Battery.

Cariani suffered from shell shock as a result of his wartime experience and had trouble reacclimating to daily life.

In 1922 Marie and her sister, Genevieve, purchased a cabin in the Peaceful Valley, north of Nashville in Brown County to use as the family's summer home.

Cariani remained at the cabin to paint after the sisters returned to the Goth residence and Marie's portrait studio in Indianapolis.

When her mother's health declined, Marie decided to move her studio out of the family's Indianapolis home and established her permanent residence in Brown County, where the original cabin was torn down and replaced with a new one.

[17][20] Goth, who is known for her portraiture, painted the likenesses of numerous Hoosier notables, prominent businessmen, and dignitaries during her long career.

Her subjects included poet James Whitcomb Riley, Pulitzer Prize– winning cartoonist John T. McCutcheon, Paul V. McNutt (who became governor of Indiana), Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra conductors Fabien Sevitsky and Izler Solomon, U.S. Army general Douglas MacArthur, and Will H. Hays, a former president of the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America, among others.

[21][22] Goth maintained her home in Brown County, Indiana, from 1923 to 1975, even after she suffered the loss of her family members, including her brother-in-law, Carl Graf, in 1947, her sister, Genevieve, in 1961, and close friend and companion, Cariani, in 1969.

[8][18][22] Goth died at her cabin in Nashville, Indiana, on January 9, 1975, from head injuries and several bone fractures suffered in a fall.

[21][24] Goth willed the bulk of her estate, valued at more than $600,000, including her property and collection of 2,000 paintings by Goth, Cariani, and Genevieve and Carl Graf, to the Brown County Art Guild, along with funds to establish and maintain a local art museum to house her collection, and to display the work of the founding members, as well as contemporary artists.