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 covers November 16–18, 1959. The first two entries contain only the date and a short note: "Amo pays 1sr visit" for November 16, and "[Return] w/ Facci" for November 17. The artist Domenico Facci taught with Indiana at the Scarsdale Studio Workshop.

Indiana's entry for November 18 includes a sketch of a work he calls "1st Construction" (later named Sun and Moon). Describing the work, Indiana explains: "from an old piece of wood found on the loading platform of a long vacated loft on Front Street, within first sight of my front dormer, I made my first real construction (outside of those examples made for Scarsdale) and in it I followed a theme already pursued in my paintings: the "vision binoculaire" of the circle. Taking one of the old rusted tricycle wheels from Fire Island, and an iron bar and stove lid from the beaches thereof."

A note added in 1961 indicates that the work was on indefinite loan to Arthur Carr (a clinical psychologist, art collector, and friend of Indiana).