THE international artist and silent activist from the Newcastle Emlyn area, well known for his creations of lonely signposts and stickmen, has decided to auction his artwork for charity.

This follows Carmarthenshire County Council officers recently removing 38 of his colourful signs. Via a third party, the signs have been returned to the artist, who for now, wishes to remain anonymous, and he wants to auction them for local good causes.

The activist finds empty posts distracting and unnecessary and by introducing humour by painting various removable signs that he attaches to the posts, he draws attention to the fact that the local authorities have left them standing empty.

“We live here because it’s beautiful and an empty post is a blot on the landscape. There are more than 100 empty signposts in Carmarthenshire alone, 21 empty posts on the A485 between Lampeter and Carmarthen and 17 from Abergwili to Cynwyl Elfed,” explained the artist who has erected many pieces of his artwork on lonely posts around the area as well as in Poland and at the Glastonbury Festival.

In total, the artist has created and erected 95 signs in six months, ranging from Thomas the Tank to a unicorn, some with pictures and some with words only. 15 of the 95 sign posts still remain, with one on the outskirts of Newcastle Emlyn on the Cwm Cou road. He has donated three signs to the Museum of Childhood in Henllan and 41 signs are unaccounted for.

“This is an ongoing project and I’d like some satisfactory answers from the local authority as to why posts remain empty. If there are no signs on the posts and they are left empty, why not get rid of them and why aren’t there any official signs on them?” he asked.

Carmarthenshire County Council said: “The posts left in the ground are for slippery road warning signs. Following resurfacing works the signs are removed but the posts are left up for future use. There are also some old redundant posts that once had waiting restriction plates on them and these are in the process of being or already been removed.

“We have removed some of the signs you refer to from the Newcastle Emlyn area but we do not have an exact number unfortunately.”

The artist added: “The posts without signs are virtually invisible at night. If you pulled over, you wouldn’t see them as they have no signs on them or anything reflective and they need to be fixed or removed.”

In the next few weeks, the international artist will start his auction on e-bay with bidding starting at £20 per sign. Visit www.facebook.com/lonelysignpost for more details and the document of the project so far.