Robert Indiana’s illustrated journals from the late 1950s and 1960s provide insight into the development of his work as well as his daily life on Coenties Slip.

Indiana's journal entry for December 2, 1962, includes a sketch of Eat, a 12 by 11-inch oil on canvas painting. Indiana writes that he removed the painting Wombs (destroyed) from its stretchers in order to use them for Eat. He notes that the black of Wombs "had been painted over so many times and presented such a bad surface [that] it was not difficult [to] sacrifice it." 

Indiana also records that J. (fashion designer John Koss) went to 14th Street to visit artist Ruth Klingman, to see her work and to show her sketches for a new outfit in exchange for a painting.