For quite some time, Linda Marie Cossa had been producing traditional art — ink and pencil drawings, paintings — that were nicely matted and framed. And it grew tiresome.

“I wanted out of that box,” she says. “I wanted something more participatory, something not sealed off from the viewer. I wanted to work with natural materials.”

Cossa’s return to the organic comprises half of “Spirit Matters,” an exhibit at Gallery Iolani that she shares with sculptor J Forest Ocean Bennett. The show is decidedly feminine in spirit, as the artists present works that explore concepts of the divine and the universal while at the same time conveying a contemplative mood of intimacy.

In her artist’s statement, Bennett suggests that the appeal of her work comes less from its appearance than that it touches “that ‘something’ … in each of us that responds to  … longing for a direct experience of the divine.”

Gallery director Toni Martin spent three years curating the show, which entailed visits several times a year to Bennett’s Mokuleia studio and plane rides to Portland, Ore., where Cossa resides.

“I saw their work many years ago and envisioned an exhibit that put them together,” Martin says. “Watching the work unfold was an enriching experience.”

“Spirit Matters” runs through Nov. 21 at Gallery Iolani, located on the Windward Community College campus. Gallery hours are 1 to 5 p.m. Sundays and Tuesdays to Fridays. The gallery will be closed Tuesday for Veterans Day. Call 236-9155.