Godwin's work received recognition with her inclusion in exhibitions at Betty Parsons’s Section Eleven Gallery and the Stable Gallery Invitational Show. She purchased a brownstone in Greenwich Village in 1963 and restored a studio in Connecticut, furthering her interest in interior design and gardening. By the 1960s, she expanded her artistic repertoire, incorporating elements of Indigenous American art and working as a landscape gardener.
Returning to New York in 1974, Godwin's paintings evolved, incorporating the physicality of her outdoor work. Her works shown at Ingber Gallery in the late 1970s referenced architectural forms, nature, and pure abstraction to create dynamic yet balanced arrangements. In the 1980s and 1990s, she introduced sensuous pastel colors and created assemblages using found materials, reflecting postmodern notions of identity and gender.
Godwin’s work has been recognized with numerous awards and honors, including an Honorary Doctor of Fine Arts from Virginia Commonwealth University. Her work is held in numerous institutional collections, including the Art Institute of Chicago, Illinois; the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C.; the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, California; and the Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Connecticut.
