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.

Indiana begins his journal entry for March 22, 1962, noting that he had received the latest David Herbert Gallery catalogue, for the José Luis Cuevas exhibition. He laments the "fantastic conservatism of the [art] world," and states that "our little Mexican fireboat is not very far out, though hot, right now." He then records that he sent a fairly long letter to artist Richard Smith, which included a slide of the Eat panel of his diptych Eat/Die.

The entry includes a sketch of the painting The Big 8, with Indiana noting that he transformed the cobalt to a white cerulean, and painted the numeral cadmium red light. He writes "now for the first time since starting I've warmed to the painting." 

Indiana also records having dinner at the D/H (the Seamen's Church Institute, often referred to as the Doghouse), and that Lenore Tawney came over bringing fig mousse.