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 May 29, 1962, Indiana records a call from artist Edward Meneely, who had his painting Nonagon from a workshop, and said that he might bring it down (to the Slip) Friday. He also describes a studio visit by Museum of Modern Art curator Campbell Wylly and a Mrs. Jacobson, which he thought might be affected by the previous day's stock market plunge. He later learned that Mrs. Jacobson was Harriet Peters' daughter (the Peters were collectors who had purchased Indiana's French Atomic Bomb in 1960), and writes: "If I had known [this] [the] whole session might have had a rosier tinge. As it was it was dull, bringing my mind much closer [to] a decision [to] terminate such occurrences."

Indiana also records working into the night and the next morning on the red field of the quadripartite painting The Red Diamond American Dream #3, which he wanted to be in better shape for Wylly's second visit.