To that divine mother, who rules the universe with grace, my salutations. Vande Jaganmātaram Śriyam.

In all the depictions of Śrī throughout history, she has been traditional, calm, and demure; in terms of her given iconography, which was, at the same time, extravagant - colorful, silky, shiny, and prosperous in terms of clothing and jewelry. After all, Her name is prosperity itself. But is that all she is, a calm, demure, extravagant, jupiterian wife of Śrīman Nārāyaṇa?

We differ.

Māta Sitādevī is a true, pure reflection of Śrīdevī in Bhūlōka. Sitādevī is depicted by the son of the Valmīka to be such a brave, liberal and knowledgeable lady. To be able to question and advise the one who ruled over the world, Śrīrāma, well, that takes courage and progressive thought.

Śrīdevī is prosperity in the truest sense.
She is courageous in the truest sense.
She is Bhakti in the truest sense.
She is divinity in the truest sense.

We have imagined that Śrī to be so as the painting. I think even that required her divine courage to inspire us from within.

The Lakṣmī Aṣṭakam depicts the Divine Mother to be wielding a conch, chakra, mace akin to that of Viṣṇu. This varies from the usual interpretation of Śrī- having two lotuses and being seated on a Lotus itself. Now, does that mean the Aṣṭakam depicts her wrongly?

No. It just means that Śrī can exist in any form she wishes. Or perhaps she can also exist in any form we imagine her to be in.

This, we think, is how Śrī would ideally choose to exist.

Śrīdevī has always been associated with a few important relics; the lotus primarily, the color gold, the planet Venus and the Moon-

in fact when Parāṣara Maharṣi in the Viṣṇu Purāṇā describes the birth of Śrī from the Kṣīrasāgara, he specifically says that she arose holding a water lily, the flower that represents Chandra. And Venus is quite literally a true reflection of Śrī in the Navagraha. In the painting, she has been depicted as a Venusian.

If Śrī were to descend down onto Bhūlōka from Vaikuntha, she would indeed look like this.