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 January 23, 1959, and January 23, 1960. In his entry for January 23, 1959, Indiana records his first invitation to a home of one of his students from the Scarsdale Studio Workshop, where he taught art classes. He then writes that he had dinner with artist Charles Hinman, and went to his apartment to pick up the art supplies that Hinman had bought him during his last days working at E. H. & A. C. Friedrichs Company. He notes "the evening was much helped along by his two black kittens, who relieved the burden of conversation of any serious quality from our shoulders."

The second entry on the page covers January 23, 1960. Indiana describes his work on Wall of China, writing that he applied white to the lower section, which brought greater relief and definition to the three rusted iron pieces: "now sharp and exact but then throwing [the] whole relief into lesser volatility; giving it somehow more substance, but at [the] same time, unfortunately, a more literal connection [to] [the] theme itself. But possibly this objection is transient." He also notes that police had questioned his actions while he was salvaging the three metal pieces on Water Street.

Indiana then describes his work on Jeanne d'Arc: "white, solid and opaque likewise, came [to] 'Jeanne d’Arc,' too, and the fore plane plank lost its broken segmented-ness and became whole again, this time arbitrary and bold."

Indiana also records a walk with J. (his partner, fashion designer John Kloss), during which they found a number of cigar presses in a pile of rubbish in front of a demolished building on Fletcher Street, and a call from Ellsworth Kelly, "delivered with nonchalance, it addressed itself [to] [the] problem of finding him a photographer for his latest big work."