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 page for December 7, 1959, Indiana records that it was "winter's first really unpleasant day," and that he got a late start, giving him little time to do anything before getting ready for Lorrie Goulet's opening at The Contemporaries. Indiana writes that before the opening he and J. (his partner, fashion designer John Kloss) stopped by the David Herbert Gallery to see Edward Plunkett's show (L'Invitation au voyage), "a real off-beat production to say the least, and of a very limited interest, with a real swerve into the effete side."

They then went to The Contemporaries, where Goulet looked "very beautiful, but a little over-stylish in a very low cut black dress, decorated with rather craftsy hammered gold jewelry." Indiana notes seeing Domenico Facci, who also taught at the Scarsdale Studio Workshop, and Goulet's husband, artist José Mariano de Creeft, to whom he was not introduced. After the opening Indiana went to visit John Hoppe, with whom he had worked on the Bell Telephone Hour (NBC-TV), Of the visit he writes that he was "reluctant to sever a friendship, which at one time was of great help."

Indiana then records that at 1 a.m. he went downstairs (in his studio) to select a piece of wood for his second construction, "another jagged-edged piece J. and I brought up this last weekend from Front Street." He notes that he divided off one end and oiled and darkened it, and that "now many construction ideas come to mind, and as long as I haven't money enough for canvas and stretchers, perhaps it is just as well."