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 August 4–6, 1959. Indiana's first entry on the page, for August 4, includes a sketch of the painting Free Form 1, with notes indicating its dimensions (36 by 40 inches) and colors (Mars black, cobalt blue, Sienna). A note added at a later date indicates that the work was destroyed on June 1, 1962. Indiana also records that he ate across the street in order to save money, which was "fast dwindling now."

Indiana's entry for August 5 includes a sketch of a work titled Oboli, with notes indicating that the work was a 52 by 60-inch oil on linen painting, with a cobalt violet ground. He writes that he began the canvas when he returned from the country (Scarsdale, where he taught art classes):

"my largest linen on stretchers, and possibly economy turned me to the purple for it was the one tube I'd bought that had as yet been unused. The original sketch for it—one of those small paintings on prepared paper, was two blue orbs on red, but I haven’t enough red for this."

Indiana records that James Rosenquist came by while he was painting the purple fields, and that as soon as he finished they went to the D/H (the Seamen's Church Institute, often referred to as the Doghouse) for food  He notes that a friend Michael, who was back from Paris, called and invited him over for dinner, so he went over after. He writes that Michael had brought him a present from Paris "a tie from Lanvin—dull orange dots on a blue field. Strangely enough it couldn’t have been more appropriate, and I liked it though he thought I might not." Indiana continues to describe the dinner on the next page of his journal (for August 5, 1959, and August 7, 1959).

Indiana's journal entry for August 6 consists only on the note "tour of the Village with Oskar—rain."