potresti anche sfruttare una ImageIcon
ImageIcon

public ImageIcon(String filename)

Creates an ImageIcon from the specified file. The image will be preloaded by using MediaTracker to monitor the loading state of the image. The specified String can be a file name or a file path. When specifying a path, use the Internet-standard forward-slash ("/") as a separator. (The string is converted to an URL, so the forward-slash works on all systems.) For example, specify:

new ImageIcon("images/myImage.gif")

The description is initialized to the filename string.

Parameters:
filename - a String specifying a filename or path
See Also:
getDescription()