What I was trying to do was start with a simple thing, fundamental things like the 1, the fact that the 1 uses a bright red, that 2, which is blue and green, for the blue and green in this case is a reference to nature, I mean to the sky and the earth, and the 3 combines the element of fire and earth and water.
— Robert Indiana
Arthur C. Carr, “The Reminiscences of Robert Indiana,” New York, November 1965, Arthur C. Carr papers; Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Columbia University Library, p. 96.