"All art is quite useless"

It is always an interesting and seemingly unanswerable moment to discuss the 'state' of art. There is one man in my life in particular whom this conversation always seems to linger around. Whether it be over a glass of wine, near a fire place, or driving across the Utah desert...the state and manner of art is a discussion which is sure to heard. Him, being of extremely knowledgable and exquisite rehtorical mind could argue any side of the discussion. Recently, one of these discussions occured and led to a plethora of interesting ideas and musing which each of us surely appreciated.
What artistic period will our generation be labeled with?
Is art still alive and kicking as it once was?
Is poetry dead?
What sort of philosophical teachings have influenced the world of creation?
All of these questions surely have more than one answer...and all of them really will only be answered in retrospect.
Which is what makes the discussion so interesting and yet difficult at the same time.
As an english major and art history minor my life is entirely based in art...both study and creation. As we continue to spin into a world of global conglomerates and consumerism it seems as though the days of poetry and tangible creation have begun to decline. This could be my own pessimistic nature or it could also be my ignorance to other types of art that, although are not neccesarily what i would prefer to see/watch/hear/feel, nonetheless have been created out of the creative genius of the people of our time.
I would argue that to an certain extent the medium of poetry is dead. That said i completely agree that as long as someone is writing it it still has some life in it. In comparison, however, it seems as though we have let it go as a human population.
We dont have time for it.
We dont care for obscure references or epic stories in verse.
We want to watch and feel action.
We want to be completely entertained through all of our senses.
Movies....video games....sports....
Poetry and classic art have seen better days.
Dont get me wrong... I will do all that i can to keep up the spirit of creation in my work. I will continue to write poetry and romantic (meaning not with the 'love' connotation) novels and experimenting with contemporoary methods of writing.
It just seems that in our general world we have moved on to literally bigger and brighter 'things'.

Things.......
The art of today.

Oscar Wilde once stated that 'all art is quite useless'
To an extent i would agree with one of my favorite authors.
He also once said that 'life follows art' in the ever lasting argument of which follows the other.
Now...what does that say about the value of our very lives.
More importnatly...with how we spend our time alive.

Do we strive to create for the sake of progress?....or for the sake of leaving your footprint in the future when you have turned to dust?....

A heap of broken images....