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 is the first page of Indiana's journal entry for  January 8, 1959. The artist describes working on a small canvas he had stretched in December, a 21 x 22 inch oil painting, later titled Sunburst, consisting of white rays against a black ground, with a blue center. A simple sketch illustrates the work.

Indiana also records some of his activities that day, including breakfast at the D/H (the Seamen's Church Institute, often referred to as the Doghouse), where he was joined by two friends, and that he stopped to play with Orange, Ellsworth Kelly's cat, on his way back to his loft. He notes he showered at Lenore's (artist Lenore Tawney) studio that evening, that he watered her plants, and that he had dinner in the West Village.