Referring to image file in WPF project in Visual Studio

I'd like to load images into a WPF project with a short pathname. Details follow.

I've got a WPF solution that looks like this:

Solution 'GB" (16 projects)   
   ABApp
     Properties
     References
     ...   ...   
   ImageApp
     Properties
     References
     images
        mona.jpg
     App.xaml
        App.xaml.cs
     Window1.xaml
        Window1.xaml.cs

I want to look at the ImageApp project.

The App.xaml file looks like this:

<Application x:Class="GB.App"
         xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
         xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
         StartupUri="Window1.xaml">
    <Application.Resources>
    </Application.Resources>
</Application>

and App.xaml.cs simply defines the class App to derive from Application.

The Window1.xaml file constructs a UI, and then Window1.xaml.cs builds a drawing area in which various image stuff will be displayed.

Inside that C# file, to load up the image images/mona.jpg that I want to display, I end up writing something like this:

        Image myImage;

        BitmapImage myBitmapImage = new BitmapImage();

        myBitmapImage.BeginInit();
        myBitmapImage.UriSource = 
             new Uri("../../images/mona.jpg", UriKind.RelativeOrAbsolute);
        myBitmapImage.EndInit();
        //set image source
        FormatConvertedBitmap newFormatedBitmapSource = new FormatConvertedBitmap();

        newFormatedBitmapSource.BeginInit();
        newFormatedBitmapSource.Source = myBitmapImage;
        newFormatedBitmapSource.DestinationFormat = PixelFormats.Bgra32;
        newFormatedBitmapSource.EndInit();
        bmpSource = newFormatedBitmapSource;
        myImage.Source = bmpSource;
        BuildRenderTransform();

(I apologize for that code -- it's a kind of simplification of what's really going on, so it may not be letter perfect.)

My question is about the Uri: I have to write ../../ at the front of the Uri so that the executing program (which ends up in ImageApp/bin/Debug) knows it has to go up two levels and then down into the images folder. Is there some way that I can just write something like new Uri("images/mona.jpg", ...) instead? Can I tell WPF that the source directory should be used as the starting path for relative searches?

I confess, the whole Uri thing is mostly baffling to me, despite my having read the microsoft help articles and several StackExchange questions/answers..

I have the suspicion (and vague memory) that by adding something to the xaml for the project, I can make this happen, but I just can't seem to do it.

Any ideas?