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 entry for July 9, 1962, Indiana records that it is "hot, hot, today, with relief only upon sunset, which was long in coming," and describes the noise from workmen pulling down large sections of brick wall (the neighborhood was being demolished for redevelopment). He notes seeing artist Ann Wilson (misspelled Anne) taking photographs, and that she called later and came up just as he was working on the "v[ery] difficult painting," The Triumph of Tira, giving it a coat of flat black and repairing the circles.