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.

Indiana's journal entry for May 20, 1961, includes a sketch of a 12 x 11-inch oil on canvas painting, Wombs (no longer extant), with a note to its right indicating that he added a second coat of paint to the ground.

Indiana records that the water had been turned back on (in his loft), and that he scrambled eggs and cooked ham for breakfast. He also writes that a bum was sleeping against the side of Ellsworth Kelly's Volkswagon, and that he and J. (his partner, fashion designer John Kloss) went to Bloomingdales, where he purchased a new pair of loafers and two bow ties. They then visited the H. C. Westermann show at Allan Frumkin Gallery and the Donal Camel show at Bertha Schaefer Gallery, before heading downtown to St. Mark's to see Jim Harvey. Accompanied by a friend of Harvey's, they saw two Alexander Dovzhenko films, Zvenigora (1928) and Arsenal (1929), which Indiana describes as "a rigorous experience."