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 September 1, 1961, Indiana notes that it was a hot day, and that a call to Arthur Carr (a clinical psychologist and art collector) made a trip to Fire Island a possibility for the weekend. He records working on God Is a Lily of the Valley,  making the "orange much more red orange," and that the painting had a spot on it, likely from when Stephen Durkee spilled his ice tea the previous evening.

Indiana then records that he went over to Fulton Street to visit the Durkees for the first time since spring. He writes that "their reaction [to] my summer work was good," and that he had a prolonged lunch with them.

Indiana frequently references current events in his journals. In this entry "Russia's atomic explosion," refers to the first of 57 nuclear tests that the Soviet Union conducted in 1961.