Hi Scott,
If you use the image URL in a browser, are you seeing the image? What type of image is it?
I just created a doodle in Paint and saved it as a png. I placed it under the images folder here:
C:\Program Files\CA\PAM\server\c2o\ext-deploy\c2oear-snapshot.ear\web-snapshot.war\images
I was then able to access it in a browser via the URL here:
https://servername:8443/itpam/images/curves.png
I think built an IRF and put an image field and made the above URL the URL for that image and immediately it showed the image.
If the above does not work for you, where exactly is it breaking down?