Robert Indiana kept a series of illustrated journals during the late 1950s and 1960s, in which he discusses the development of his work as well as his daily life on Coenties Slip.

This journal page documents August 16–17, 1959, and August 16–17, 1960. Notes at the top of this journal page, for the August 16, 1959, entry, record Indiana's addition of a second coat of violet to the painting Oboli, and that he changed the painting Free Form 1 (destroyed) from Van Dyke brown to raw umber. 

The entry also includes a sketch of a 50 x 40-inch oil on canvas painting titled Narcissus. Letters on the sketch indicate the placement of the work's two colors, cadmium yellow light and permanent white. Indiana notes that he began this yellow painting "as it had been greatly requested by John [his partner, fashion designer John Kloss]," and that he himself "was eager to have the work underway in color" for John's company's visit tomorrow.

Indiana's entry for August 17, 1959, only notes that Wanda Landowska (a Polish harpsichordist) had died in Connecticut at the age of 82.

The bottom half of the page contains the entries for August 16–17, 1960. In his August 16 entry Indiana mentions feeling pure gloom over yesterday's happenings (a surprise visit to the building by fire inspectors), which he felt meant that his days at the loft were more clearly numbered. On the 17th he details that his landlord (Bernard Schonbrun) had left a note saying his August rent check had not arrived, but that it muse be a mistake as he had his receipt on hand.