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.

In his journal entry for June 15, 1962, Indiana records a call from James Rosenquist, who asked him to come over to see his new painting. Indiana writes that the painting, whose beginning he had seen with Museum of Modern Art curator Campbell Wylly, was "a canvas with an odd-shaped hole in it, now completed in a slivery-gray . . . he was using my HP [a painting Indiana had given Rosenquist] as a color accent in [the] hole." Rosenquist then came to Indiana's studio to see the painting from Stephen Durkee that Indiana had acquired the previous day, Indiana noting "his reaction was strong. Found much wanting."

Indiana records that Rosenquist left after lunch, and he worked on The Black Diamond American Dream #2, applying a second coat to most of the yellow areas. He also writes that Wylly came over with a friend that evening, and that it was the third anniversary of him meeting J. (his partner, fashion designer John Kloss) at the Living Theatre, "a little hard [to] believe [that] so much has gone by."