{"id":12651,"date":"2024-01-24T21:07:27","date_gmt":"2024-01-24T21:07:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.golive.clarku.edu\/news\/2024\/01\/24\/competitive-passion-meets-creative-expression\/"},"modified":"2025-05-19T09:26:40","modified_gmt":"2025-05-19T13:26:40","slug":"competitive-passion-meets-creative-expression","status":"publish","type":"story","link":"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/news\/2024\/01\/24\/competitive-passion-meets-creative-expression\/","title":{"rendered":"Competitive passion meets creative expression"},"content":{"rendered":"\n            \n            <p class=\"intro news-subhead\">On Esports team or with a paintbrush in hand, Clarkie flexes skills<\/p>\n            <p><html><body><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"pullquote right\"><\/p>\n<p class=\"p__small\" style=\"text-align: center\">&#8220;I&rsquo;m very self-competitive &mdash; I want to be the best version of myself I can be.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><cite><\/cite>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n<style>\r\n  .content > blockquote.pullquote,\r\n  .content > blockquote.pullquote p,\r\n  .content > .pullquote cite {\r\n    font-style: normal;\r\n  }\r\n  .content > blockquote.pullquote.tint {\r\n    background-color: #eaeaea;\r\n    border: 0;\r\n  }\r\n  .content > blockquote.pullquote p {\r\n  }\r\n  .content > blockquote.pullquote::before {\r\n    display: none;\r\n  }\r\n  .content > .pullquote cite {\r\n    display: block;\r\n    font-size: .75em;\r\n    font-weight: normal;\r\n    text-align: right;\r\n  }\r\n  @media all and (min-width: 650px) {\r\n\t.content > blockquote.pullquote.left,\r\n    .content > blockquote.pullquote.right {\r\n      \tclear: both;\r\n\t    max-width: 50%;\r\n      \ttext-align: left;\r\n\t}\r\n\t.content > blockquote.pullquote.left {\r\n      float: left;\r\n      margin: 10px 40px 40px 0;\r\n    }\r\n\t.content > blockquote.pullquote.right {\r\n      float: right;\r\n      margin: 10px 0 40px 40px;\r\n    }\r\n  }\r\n<\/style>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400\">Rachel Molnar &rsquo;26 enjoys doing a subtle dance between the thrill of competition and the joy of creative projects.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400\">Molnar was already a decorated artist in multiple mediums before she transferred to Clark last fall &mdash; her creations have attracted hundreds of thousands of followers online. In her <a href=\"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/bsdt\/\" aria-label=\"BSDT website\">Becker School of Design &amp; Technology<\/a> classes, Molnar hopes to indulge her passions as a maker and strengthen her prowess as a player on Clark&rsquo;s Valorant Red Esports team. Valorant is a popular first-person tactical game.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400\">&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve loved art and games all my life. It&rsquo;s been a circle of interest for me,&rdquo; Molnar says.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400\">Clark&rsquo;s intimate campus setting was attractive to Molnar. She finds solace in the smaller classroom sizes where she can foster connections with peers, a departure from the impersonal large lecture hall courses at her former institution.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-medium-large wp-image-46732\" src=\"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2023_Rachael_Molnar-32-420x280-2.jpg\" alt=\"Rachel Molnar with art\" width=\"420\" height=\"280\">&ldquo;I feel like I matter here,&rdquo; she says with a smile.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400\">Playing on the Esports team gives Molnar her competitive fix.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400\">&ldquo;I love the thrill of winning and losing and trying to get my rank back. I&rsquo;m very self-competitive &mdash; I want to be the best version of myself I can be,&rdquo; she says. &ldquo;I&#8217;m not putting in all this extra work to be the best in the class, but to test my own abilities.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400\">When she was a senior in high school, Molnar began making intricate wooden plaques inspired by video games. She uses a bandsaw to cut the right shape and creates a pixelated flourish with careful painting. She began to record herself working and post the footage to TikTok.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400\">&ldquo;The first video I did blew up and got more than 40,000 views, which was mind-boggling at the time,&rdquo; says Molnar. &ldquo;I thought, &lsquo;People must really love this.&rsquo;&rdquo;<\/p>\n<div class=\"csidebar right\"><\/p>\n<h4 style=\"text-align: center\">Level up your learning<\/h4>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/esports\/\">Join an Esports team<\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\"><a href=\"https:\/\/clarknow.clarku.edu\/2023\/10\/12\/planting-the-seeds-for-mental-health\/\">Launch a mobile game<\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\"><a href=\"https:\/\/clarknow.clarku.edu\/2023\/04\/12\/clark-makes-its-gaming-presence-known-at-pax-east\/\">Showcase at PAX East<\/a><\/p>\n<p><\/div>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400\">Molnar&rsquo;s bubbly personality and artistic style have attracted a significant social media following. She boasts more than 617,000 followers on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tiktok.com\/@rachelontwitch\" aria-label=\"Molnar's TikTok\">TikTok<\/a>, where several videos of her have gone viral. Molnar displays the breadth of her art skills to her more than 41,000 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/rachelontwitch\/\" aria-label=\"Molnar's instagram\">Instagram<\/a> followers. Photos of pieces hand-painted in bright purples, reds, and blues pop next to fine-line sketches and digital creations.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400\">Watching her follower count increase in real time was a bit overwhelming, Molnar admits.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400\">&nbsp;&ldquo;I just liked sharing my art and getting feedback,&rdquo; she says. &ldquo;I never expected to gain a following like that.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400\">Molnar mainly creates artistic content, but she also streams games on Twitch on occasion.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400\">&ldquo;I stream Minecraft Bedwars, which is like Capture the Flag, and Valorant,&rdquo; she says. &ldquo;I tend to lean toward competitive games.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-medium-large wp-image-46731\" src=\"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2023_Rachael_Molnar-23-420x280-2.jpg\" alt=\"Rachel Molnar with art\" width=\"420\" height=\"280\"><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400\">Currently, Molnar is taking a break from content creation to focus on her studies at Clark, and her art. Last semester, she placed third in the annual BSDT art contest.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400\">&ldquo;I was doing 12 hours a day of streaming, posting and editing videos, and doing art commissions,&rdquo; Molnar says. &ldquo;That sort of schedule is impossible to continue now.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400\">Her post-college aspirations include creating her own game from the ground up or working at the studio that created Valorant.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400\">&ldquo;It would be cool to design my own games and have a big hit by myself like <a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/name\/nm4912259\/\" aria-label=\"Toby Fox imdb\">Toby Fox<\/a> or <a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/name\/nm6926569\/\" aria-label=\"Scott Cawthon imdb\">Scott Cawthon<\/a>, but I&rsquo;d also love to work for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.riotgames.com\/en\" aria-label=\"Riot games website\">Riot<\/a> one day,&rdquo; Molnar says.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400\">More than anything, Molnar just wants to put her effort into something she loves.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400\">&ldquo;As long as I&rsquo;m proud of what I&rsquo;m working on,&rdquo; she says, &ldquo;that&rsquo;s enough for me.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p><\/body><\/html><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On Esports team or with a paintbrush in hand, Clarkie flexes skills<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":12652,"template":"","meta":{"story_color":"#525250","story_headerImg":12652,"section_label":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[225,223,227],"displayed_author":[319],"featured":[],"topic":[250,238,148,337,144,145,119,120,126,121],"class_list":["post-12651","story","type-story","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts-humanities","category-clark-community","category-science-technology","displayed_author-ed-greig-23-mfa-24","topic-arts","topic-becker-school-of-design-technology-at-clark-university","topic-community","topic-esports","topic-interactive-game-design","topic-major-in-interactive-media","topic-student-life","topic-student-projects","topic-technology","topic-undergraduate-students"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v27.2 (Yoast SEO v27.3) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Competitive passion 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