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 September 10–11, 1959. In his journal entry for September 10 Indiana describes calls with Arthur (Carr, a clinical psychologist and art collector) and J. (his partner, fashion designer John Kloss), and notes working on another oil study on paper. The entry includes a sketch of the work, with letters indicating two different color combinations, one white, cerulean, and white, and another black, purple, and white. Indiana also records receiving a call from dancer and choreographer Paul Sanasardo just as he was putting "the final whorl of black" on the orbs of his painting Oboli. He notes calling Sanasardo back after finishing, and that he was invited to an open house at the studio of dancer and choreographer Donna Feuer. 

Indiana's entry for September 11 includes sketches of three oil on paper color studies. Letters indicate the different color combinations of each work: orange, cerulean, and white; white, orange, and white; and black, green, and white. He writes that the first two were successful, whereas the third suffered due to the sap green he used. Indiana notes the works suggest some Nipponese (Japanese) influence, and that he used the same orange in two of them, but that the difference was immense due to the other colors used. He also records adding another coat of paint to his sketch from yesterday, a pale terre verse, which very much improved the work.

Besides discussing the work he did that day Indiana records a call from James Rosenquist, and that Kloss had dined with fashion designer Arnold Scaasi.