The All Seeing I
January 05, 2009 @ 5:00 AM
Lewis Marnell’s whole family tree spells “international”. Born in Australia to a half Swedish, half Aussie parents, his siblings’ backgrounds cover the globe from Philippines to Australia to Scandinavia to Uganda. Throw in a Jamaican-American girlfriend and a day job as a full time hobo, a Schengen and Common Wealth passports and a US visa in progress, plus a couple of languages, and you’re not far from the Marnell experience. Despite such a pick and mix existence or perhaps as a result of it, Lewis comes across as a perfectly balanced combination of laid back live and let live approach and a hard working determination and the ability to focus on the task at hand. While working on this interview on his 2 week “holiday” in Sweden, Lewis was catching up with family in the mornings, jumping down stuff during the day and then meeting old friends to sit and talk until the early hours every day. When the wind and rain would drive the Stockholm locals indoors, Lewis would sit through it with about 6 lattes and a pack of snus and be out there again as soon as the raindrops stopped falling, drying out the spot with newspapers and discarded t-shirts. When he’d break a board, he wouldn’t think twice about taking the metro all across town to pick up another one, say hi to the dad, leave him with a couple of tips for vegetarian pasta sauce and get straight back to the spot to finish what he’d started.
Text and photos: Deeli
Your family comes from all over the globe pretty much. Do you keep in touch with everyone?
I’ve pretty much got my dad’s side of the family over in Sweden and then my mom’s side here in Australia. I moved to Sweden in -96 from Australia, I’d come back for Christmas and for holidays and then I think in 2002 I moved back to Australia. Since I’ve been living here I haven’t been back to Sweden as much as I would like to, but I try to go back once a year or so.
What made you move to Sweden in the first place?
My dad moved over to Sweden cause he got some work over there. Then me and my brother went over there to visit. We were only gonna stay 2 weeks. It was summertime, we were skating and everything and I had a really good time, so my dad asked me if I wanted to stay for a year and see how I like it over there and try and learn the language and stuff. So I was like yeah, word, I try that for a year. And then yeah, I just ended up being there for like seven years, I guess. Extended stay!
In the end, what made you decide it was time to head back?
Well, I always wanted to move back to Australia the whole time, in a way. Don’t get me wrong Sweden is great, but the winters will drive you insane, especially if you’re an outdoor person like me. If you’re a skateboarder you want to be outdoors in nice weather and be able to do all those active things you wanna be doing. It’s kind of limited in a place like Sweden, so as soon as I had the chance to get back over here and do it on my own, I did.
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