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 January 22, 1959, and January 22–23, 1960. Indiana's entry for January 22, 1959, occupies the lower half of the page, and includes a partial sketch of his drawing Stavrosis. His comment, "it occured to me this afternoon though feel'ng rather shattered and at ends, that if I should show the crucifix it would be a crucifix without the supporting arms that make it a crucifixion," refers to a suggestion by the owners of the Parma Gallery that, due to the size of the work, he exhibit only its central panels.

Indiana's entries for January 22–23, 1960, occupy the top half of the page. In the upper entry, for January 23, Indiana mentions leaving Hoboken "alone in the a.m.," declaring that "all those things that gave color to the new year as it opened crumbled and became cast dust in the recent hours."

In his entry for January 22, Indiana records that he "spent most of the day patching the longest construction (Pearl St), which had several nicks in it when J. [fashion designer John Kloss] and I first found it on Pearl Street, the day we were jeered at by a perfume merchant as Castro men. It was a tedious job and my tools and craft weren't really up to it, but the job was finally done with, at the end, only a knot-hole missing." He also mentions receiving a check, which would give them food for the weekend.